An Immortal Sage
by Sitra
Summary: A centuries old man from an age long past, and a powerful guild with a penchant for destruction. What do they have in common? More than you might think.
1. Chapter 1

Mavis Vermillion was bored.

The blonde twelve year old sat at a table in one of the few buildings still standing on the island of Tenrou; the library. Stacked around her, on table and floor alike, were dozens and dozens of books. Mavis loved books. Books were diverse. They served so many different purposes: to inform, to entertain, to entice, to frighten, the list went on and on. To her, books were a constant companion; always there for her when she wanted to laugh, cry (which she _never_ did. Fairies didn't visit crybabies), or to simply lose herself in a story. Books were one of the few things that she knew of that could almost always put her in a good mood. The only others she could think of were the cute little animals that called Tenroujima their home, and her best friend Zeira. However, there were some days when even she tired of reading and instead craved for the excitement of something _new_, something _different_ to happen on this lonely old island. It was days like these that made Mavis glad she had her best friend to keep her company. And even if Zeira couldn't always stave off the boredom, then at least they could suffer through it together.

Speaking of Zeira, the girl had been suspiciously quiet for the past half hour or so. Listening intently for signs of the brunette's presence, she could hear the faintest sounds of deep, even breathing from just beyond her fortress of books. Mavis gave a small frown. That girl; how were they ever going to meet the fairies if Zeira couldn't concentrate long enough to do a bit of studying? It had only been what, an hour? She looked behind her and out the small window to check the position of the sun. 'Oh dear. Has it been that long already? No wonder I'm bored!' They had begun reading around high noon and now the sun was almost finished with its decent.

Pushing her chair back from the table with a slight screech, she hopped out of the chair to place her bare feet on the cool stone floor. Doing a light bit of stretching to work the kinks out of her back, she stepped around the books she had amassed on her side of the table and gave her drooling friend a small nudge under her ribs to rouse her. Zeira's head shot up from her book-pillow and she glanced around frightfully for a few moments before settling back down with a scowl on her face.

"Mavis! How many times have I told you not to do that?" the brunette asked with a frown.

The blonde girl just smiled back demurely, bringing her finger to the corner of her mouth as she adopted her 'cute thinking pose'. "This would be the 131st time I believe. Unless you count wet willies as well, then it's 156."

Zeira just gave her a deadpan look in response. "And yet you continue to do it. Do you enjoy making me miserable?"

Mavis looked aghast. "Of course not!" she gasped, voice full of sarcasm. Then she reached over to pull on the other girl's cheeks. "Its just that Zeira's mean face is so _cute_! I can't help but want to see it as much as possible!"

Zeira had no response to the blonde's teasing and simply blushed, refusing to speak for a minute. Finally she spoke up. "Its getting late and we haven't eaten since lunch. Can we _please_ go make some dinner?" To add to the girl's pleas, her stomach rumbled loud enough for both to hear.

"Of course! That's why I woke you in the first place silly! What would…you…like?" she trailed off, noticing that Zeira had gone unnaturally still.

"Someone's coming." She mumbled.

"What? People? On this island?" Mavis looked confused for a moment, until she noticed that Zeira was no longer standing in front of her. "Zeira? Where'd you-" She was cut off by a wailing cry from her friend, who had hidden herself behind a large bookcase.

"Waaaaah! I haven't spoken to anybody in six years! What am I gonna do?" She didn't notice Mavis' face, which looked like a kicked puppy at that statement.

"It's like I don't even exist!" she despaired, tears rolling down her face, before straightening up and putting her most serious face on. "Don't worry Zeira, leave it to me." With that, she marched barefoot to the entryway of the library to await their "guest".

Two tense minutes of waiting later, the heavy wooden door creaked open and the red-orange light from the setting sun outlined a tall figure draped in a thick black cloak, odd considering the almost perpetually warm weather on the island. A hood shrouded his face in shadows and Mavis noticed that, for how large the man was, he was very light on his feet, making almost no noise apart from the creaking door now closing behind him.

When the door finally shut and her eyes readjusted to the light of the candles inside, Mavis squinted and scrunched up her face in an attempt to get a glimpse at what exactly lay under the hood. She needn't have bothered however, as the man reached up with two tanned and calloused hands to remove the hood obscuring her view of the questionable man in front of her. When he did, the girl was treated to the sight of a kind looking boy that in Mavis' limited, and admittedly underused experience, looked to be at most, five or six years her senior. His golden blond hair, a few shades darker than her own, combined with what appeared to be _whiskers_ on his cheeks, and the grin that seemed to split his face in two, drew her in for a moment before she shook her head and got down to business.

"Why have you come to this island?" Mavis asked in what she hoped was a powerful and imposing tone, though the fact that the traveler's smile seemed to, somehow, widen even farther, gave her the impression that she failed. But still, she kept a straight face as she waited to hear this boy's answer.

"Hello there little girl! I'm looking for a guild called Red Lizard that're supposed to be on this island. Well, at least I think it was this island. I'm not too good with directions hehe." He chuckled a little at some joke that Mavis assumed she missed. "I've checked out over half the island, but I can't seem to find their guild. Do you know where it is?" He looked down at the girl with a hopeful expression painting his face.

"Listen mister-"

"Naruto." The boy interjected quickly.

Mavis quirked an eyebrow at that. "Um no thank you. I was going to have stew tonight, not ramen." Besides, why on Earthland would she accept fishcakes from some strange man she just met?

The boy's whole demeanor shifted in an instant. His tall and proud posture slumped and the beaming smile dissolved from his face. Mavis could almost _see_ the storm clouds gathering above his head as he wept for some reason that the girl couldn't fathom.

"Ismnme…" he mumbled half-heartedly.

"What was that mister? I couldn't hear you" This whole situation was getting weirder and weirder by the second.

"I said it's my name. Naruto. I wasn't asking if you wanted fishcakes. I was telling you what to call me. Naruto Uzumaki." He spoke up a bit this time, hoping to eliminate the girl's misunderstanding.

Ooooh, that made a lot more sense. She supposed she would've caught on to the fact immediately had she not been so focused on why a strange man had come to their island in search of a long-dead guild.

With a look of understanding upon her face, Mavis turned to apologize to the crying man-child. "I'm sorry Uzumaki-san. I didn't mean to, erm, offend you. I was simply caught off guard by your exclamation."

As soon as the words registered in his mind, Naruto reverted back to his initial posture, any trace of tears gone from his face and his 100 watt smile back in place.

"Ah that's ok. Misunderstandings happen. But you can just call me Naruto! So, umm-"

"Mavis Vermillion" she supplied.

His smile brightened. "So Mavis Vermillion, could you give me some directions to Red Lizard? I have some very important information I need to give to their master. It seems that they're going to be attacked by another guild called-"

"Blue Skull?" Mavis guessed. She figured she knew where he was going.

"Yeah! How'd you know that?" Naruto was impressed. He had to skulk around a lot of seedy bars to work out that information. For this little girl to know what was going to happen, she must have a lot of good connections.

"They already attacked." Naruto frowned. He was too late to warn them? Mavis continued, "Six years ago."

The two blondes stared at each other for a moment before the older one broke the silence. "Whaaaa? Six years? That's not possible! It's only been-" he started counting on his fingers, "three years at the most! Err, well, I think it's only been three years. I did sort of lose track of time on my way through Bosco. Damn. Damn Damn Damn. I'm too late again." He turned back to the girl standing before him with a bemused expression on her face. "Were there any survivors?" he asked, fearing the answer.

"Just me and my friend Zeira." She replied, hearing a yelp but no movement behind her from ousted friend. "We've been living here alone since then."

Naruto frowned hearing this. "I'm sorry I didn't get here in time to warn your guild." He apologized to the girl in front of him as well as the one hiding behind the bookcase.

"There's no need for you to apologize for an attack that you took no part in." she said, hoping to absolve him of any misplaced guilt he was feeling.

"But I-"

"Is it your job to go around informing guilds of impending attacks?"

"Well, I mean, not really, but if I can help-" Once more he was interrupted.

"Exactly. _If _you can help. In this case you could not, and as such, we do not blame you for…losing track of time…even if it was for six years."

At that, Naruto gave the younger blonde a sad smile. "I really am sorry I couldn't get here in time. Can I do anything to make it up to you two? Are you doing ok on this island all by yourselves? Do you need me to take you somewhere on the mainland? I mean, I don't have a boat, but I can find a way for all of us to make it. And then you can find some adults to live with, or you could join a guild and make friends." Naruto continued to ramble on until something he said caught Mavis' attention.

"If you don't have a boat, then how did you get here" she queried with no small bit of skepticism.

"Huh? Oh, I just walked is all." He responded like walking across miles of ocean was an everyday occurrence.

"You…walked. Across miles and miles of ocean. Without getting wet. And how exactly did you manage to do that?" Mavis gazed at the boy with an incredulous stare. How on Earthland could he possibly expect us to…believe…She had to cut off her own thoughts, because what she saw in front of her was surely not happening. It had to be an illusion of some kind. Maybe she was suffering from hunger-induced hallucinations. Whatever it was, she knew it to be fake, because people most certainly did not _stand_ on the _ceiling_. That was simply _impossible_, even for someone with-of course! That was it!

"You're a mage!" she gasped in delight. It'd been so long since she'd seen a mage. She had taught herself a bit of illusion magic over the years, but truly powerful magics required teachers to be able to truly master a subject. If Naruto was a mage, then maybe he'd teach her some of his magic. That would be amazing. She had managed to teach herself a bit of illusion magic, but anything else was simply too difficult to learn on her own.

Naruto laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Well sort of. What I do is a little bit different from magic."

Mavis was confused but extremely interested in learning about this 'sort of' magic. "What do you mean a 'bit different'? I thought that all forms of magic were created from the same energy? If that's true, then how is your magic any different from anyone else's magic? Is it something other than holder or caster magic? Oh! Is it a lost magic?"

Naruto smiled at the enthusiastic response, dropping from the ceiling with a cat-like grace to land in front of the star-struck girl, before he responded. "Well, I guess you could call it a lost magic, but even that would be a misnomer, because technically I don't use magic at all." Mavis just stared at him, not quite understanding. "Hmm, where to start? Ok, so I actually look really young for my age. Like really, really, _really_ young. With me so far?" He asked.

Mavis nodded, even though she was quite confused. He was older than he looked? How much older? What did his age have to do with his sort-of magic? She needed to know more.

Naruto continued, unaware of the questions bouncing around in Mavis' head. "Well, the place that I'm from doesn't exist anymore. It was a land filled with war and violence, corruption and trickery, and the soldiers of the land, called shinobi, carried out missions to kill, steal, and commit all sorts of horrible acts in the name of their village. They used an energy called chakra to perform jutsus, sort of like spells, in order to attack one another and also to assist in transportation. After countless wars, and even more deaths, the entire land just collapsed in on itself. Eventually, everyone who could use chakra died out and people developed the ability to use absorb eternano and use magic. Now, as far as I know, I'm the only one left in the world who can use chakra."

Mavis stared in awe at the man standing before her. She could vaguely remember reading a tome buried somewhere in the plethora of bookcases behind her that made brief mention of an ancient race capable of performing amazing feats, similar to what they called magic today. It was documented that those people used energy other than eternano to control the elements and even manifest the energy itself into a physical form to use as a weapon. Among scholars, it was generally agreed upon that this energy, which she now knew was called chakra, was the precursor to eternano and magic. If the man in front of her was telling the truth, which at this point she was almost certain he was, then he truly was the last remaining artefact from an age of legends.

But then, that meant that Naruto was…well…_ancient_.

"How old are you?" she asked curiously. "If what you say is true, then that would mean you were _at least_ 600 years old. But then, you talk about your people like you watched them die out, which would mean you were even older."

"Ah, you're pretty smart, you know that? I am indeed over 600 years old, but I'm not gonna tell you exactly how old. That wouldn't be any fun. So instead, you have to guess. And if you manage to guess, I'll tell you anything you want to know about the world when I was young." Naruto chuckled at the girl's reaction. Mavis looked extremely put out that the piece of living history standing in front of her refused to part with such valuable information. But then, her eyes hardened and she nodded resolutely.

"I accept your challenge." She announced with the most conviction she could muster.

Naruto looked a bit confused at her sudden declaration, but shrugged and went along with it. If it motivated her then who was he to ruin her fun? Finally, he decided he should get back to the reason he was here in the first place.

"So if my message is useless now, I guess I don't have a reason for staying here much longer. Unless there's anything that you or your friend need from me, I'll be off." With a smile and a wave he turned to reach for the door.

"Wait!" Mavis yelled, halting his movements. "You never let me guess your age."

Naruto grinned sheepishly at the girl from over his shoulder. "Heh, I guess you're right. Ok, you get one guess." His grin morphed into a smirk when he saw the blonde's face.

"Only one guess?!" she hollered. "It's near impossible to guess a person's age when they could be anywhere from 600 to well over 1,000 years old!"

Naruto realized that she was taking this little game far more seriously than he was, and decided to help her out a bit. "Alright, how about this; I am older than 650, but younger than 1,000. That should help narrow it down. And I should have specified, you get one guess _today_." He clarified.

Mavis looked confused, and Naruto had to concede that it was an extremely cute look on the girls face. "One…today? How is that going to help? What are the chances that we'll ever meet again? If you were to leave now, then it's highly unlikely that we'll cross paths at any point in the future, which would mean that I still only got one chance to guess." She began to pout at the thought of losing a source of such valuable information. Also, strange though he was, Naruto was kind and friendly, and she wouldn't mind getting to know the ancient man on a more personal level. She could always use another friend. Plus, she could admit, if only to herself, that for a several centuries old man, he was quite cute.

The blonde snapped out of her mental reverie when she heard the aforementioned man speak. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. For as long as you stay on this island, I'll stop by every few months to visit, and even if you leave here to go to the mainland, I'm always traveling and it's a small world out there; I'm sure we'll run into each other again somewhere. Besides, I don't exactly have too many friends. Being immortal, you grow tired of watching everyone you hold dear grow old and die around you. But the friends I do have mean the world to me, and I'd like to think we could be friends. And who knows? Maybe the next time I visit, Zeira will come and introduce herself instead of hiding behind a bookshelf." They both laughed at the startled squeak that followed his last statement.

"One last thing before I go." Naruto's hand disappeared beneath his cloak and reappeared a few seconds later holding a strange type of knife, the likes of which Mavis had never seen before. It's blade was sharp on both sides down to the base of the blade which arced out to each side in a crescent moon shape. The handle was wrapped in a tan cloth and decorated with some form of strange archaic writing that she'd never seen before. The bottom of the knife was adorned with a small ring that looked just big enough for Naruto to slip a finger through. She tensed for a small moment until it occurred to her that if the man in front of her wanted to harm her, he could have done so at any point in their conversation and she wouldn't have noticed until it was far too late.

With that thought banished from her head, she turned her attention back to the knife that was now spinning slowly around one of the shinobi's fingers. In one smooth motion, he tossed it up in the air, grabbed it by the blade, and presented the handle to the shorter blonde.

Mavis looked at the knife in confusion for a moment and then turned that look to the one holding it. Naruto smiled widely and pushed the strange object towards the girl once more. Taking the hint, she grabbed it from him before examining it in closer detail. She was no expert when it came to blades of any kind, but even she could tell that it was finely made. The edge looked extremely sharp, like even the slightest touch against her finger would break the skin, and the flat part of the blade was a smooth matte black that seemed to swallow the light around it. Once more, she was brought back to reality by the sound of her newest friend's voice addressing her.

"That knife you're holding is called a kunai." Naruto explained. "It's an important part of a technique I use that allows me to instantly relocate myself to where one of those is located. If you're ever in any trouble, just throw that kunai into the floor or wall nearby and I'll be there to help. Does that sound good to you?" Mavis just nodded slowly, astounded at the possibilities of instant teleportation. She nearly got lost in her own little world again, but was distracted by Naruto telling her to try throwing the knife as a sort of practice run.

Nodding, the small girl brought her arm back in preparation for the throw, but was halted by Naruto grabbing her wrist lightly and stepping behind her to bring her shoulders around into a better position. Flushing brightly at the close contact and stammering a thanks to the blond boy, Mavis wound back once more and then released the knife with all of her might towards the thick front door of the library. It flew a few feet off to the right and wobbled unsteadily, but before it could crash into the hard stones the made up the wall around the door, Naruto's presence behind her disappeared, and in the same instant, a bright flash of yellow light illuminated the entryway before dying down to reveal the blond ninja casually spinning the kunai she'd just thrown around his finger with a smirk alighting his whiskered face.

Mavis gawked at the scene in front of her. Her mouth hung down, nearly scraping the floor while her mind ran a mile a minute, replaying what she had just witnessed. It truly was _instant_ teleportation. There was no lag time between when he had vanished from behind her, to when he reappeared in front of her. In fact, it almost seemed like he was in both places at once; as if he had simply told reality that he actually existed at both points in space for that one instant in time. It was the single most astounding thing she had witnessed in twelve years of life.

But this demonstration just left her with so many questions. There had to be a limit to this power; what was it? Did it only work over a certain distance? Could it only be done a set number of times per day? Did it harm the user in some way? Just how did it work? Mavis spat these questions out one after another, hoping that the faster she asked them, the faster they would be answered. Thankfully, Naruto began his explanation before the young girl could start hyperventilating.

"As far as I know, there's no limit on the distance or amount of times it can be used in a set period. My dad once used this technique to fight an entire army of nearly 200 ninja in under a minute. It takes very little chakra to use, even for someone with relatively low reserves. For me, it's like a drop in the ocean. I'd probably have to use the technique continuously for close to an hour before I started to feel anything resembling fatigue. As for how it works, well imagine that space is a piece of cloth." He grabbed part of his cloak before continuing. "Normally, when we move, it's in a straight line across the cloth." He drew his finger across his cloak, marking a line of about six inches. "Now imagine that this kunai and my chakra are opposing ends of two magnets; in other words, we're drawn towards each other. The force that pulls at us is so great, that it can actually bend space," he held the ends of his section of cloak together with thumb and forefinger, "in order to bring the two objects closer together. From there, it's just a matter of making a little hole that I can climb through to get from one side of the cloth to the other." Finally, he stuck the tip of the kunai through one side of his cloak and out the other. "Does that make sense?" he asked. He was genuinely curious. He'd never had to explain how the technique worked before. Most people just sort of went with it.

Mavis considered it all for a few seconds and then nodded in affirmation. "I think I understand. Just one more question; what is it that makes the kunai so special?" Most of Naruto's explanation made some semblance of sense to her, but she simply couldn't ascertain what allowed a piece of metal to violate the most basic rules of reality.

Naruto grinned at the girl's remarkable intellect. He'd wondered if she would ask about that. Most people would be so caught up in other aspects of his explanation that they'd completely overlook the fact that it was not just him working to manipulate space and time. "Good question! And the answer is this bit of ink right here." He once again handed her the knife, handle first, using his other hand to point out the characters scrawled along its grip.

Examining the knife once more, Mavis paid extra attention to the lines of ink that covered the handle. She had initially passed it off as simple decoration, perhaps a name tag of sorts written in his people's language. Now though, she knew better. She brought it to her face to take a closer look and began to compare what she saw to what she knew of runescript. There were a few basic similarities between the two; some of the characters on the knife seemed like they could have changed over the years into what were now runic letters, but the grammar and syntax were entirely different. Runes were rather straightforward in composition, and read as if you were reading a story. However, there was nothing linear about these symbols. They seemed to swirl together from every direction, intersecting in a maze of interlocked lines. She imagined learning the grammatical nuances of this language would be incredibly difficult, but unimaginably rewarding. Looking back to the whiskered man, she explained her findings.

"You're right about the correlation between runes and seals. From the little I know of runes, the characters are based on sealing script, but the overall organization changed to the linear style that you're familiar with. A consequence of this though is that you lose the ability to have a single rune influence more than the other runes in that sentence. On the other hand, with seals, the structure allows for each character to influence every other character and completely alter their intended function. As a result, something written with a dozen sealing characters would require more than 100 runes to reproduce."

Mavis was about to continue what was quite honestly the most interesting conversation she'd ever had, but she was interrupted by a ferocious growl emanating from her stomach. In her head, she began to curse her mutinous stomach. She would gladly go without eating for a few more hours if it meant she could continue this enlightening conversation. She'd learned more in the past 30 minutes than she usually did from a month's worth of reading books off the library shelf. Having another intellectual to converse with was an amazing thing. She truly loved Zeira, but her best friend was far from scholarly.

She opened her mouth to tell Naruto to ignore her stomach's cries for sustenance, but the shinobi used that moment to take his leave. "I should get going. You girls have a dinner to eat, and I don't want to impose any more than I already have." Naruto once more turned to the door.

"Wait! You can have dinner with us! You don't have to leave already. I have so many more questions! Plus it's dark out now. You shouldn't try crossing the ocean in the dark; you could get hurt! Just stay on the island for the night and you can leave tomorrow." Mavis pleaded with the man to stay so they could keep conversing, but he was having none of it.

"Don't worry Mavis. This isn't the last time you'll see me. I'll come back to visit in a month or two, okay?" The young blonde still looked devastated. "And maybe I'll even bring some souvenirs!" That got her to smile a bit, and she threw back a 'You better!' causing the older blond to chuckle softly. Sending one last smile over his shoulder, Naruto opened the heavy door and stepped outside. Zeira finally emerged from her hiding place behind the bookshelf and moved to stand next to Mavis in the doorway. The two of them stood side by side, watching the back of the cloaked shinobi until he disappeared into the night.

**A/N: Hey guys, I've never written anything like this before. In fact, this is the first piece of recreational writing I've ever completed. As such, I'd very much appreciate any and all critiques you have for me, hell, even flames are fine. Just something to tell me what I've done right or wrong. On the other hand, you can totally ignore this and I'll just keep writing the way I have been.**

**SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FAIRY TAIL ZERO**

**As far as the story is concerned, there will probably be two or three more pre-cannon chapters before we get to cannon time (i.e. X784). Beyond that though, I really have no idea where to take this. Regarding Zeira, as you may or may not know, there is some debate as to whether she is alive or if she even exists at all since there is no incident of anyone other than Mavis actually interacting with her so far. I believe there is definitely some merit to this idea, but for the sake of my fragile little heart, I'm going to pretend she's alive. Not that this changes much, as her part in these first few chapters is as more of a background character and a bit of a counterpoint to Mavis' outgoing and easily trusting personality.**

**Next chapter will most likely skim over what happens during Fairy Tail Zero, including the founding of Fairy Tail. I'm finishing up my third year of college at the moment, and my professors get hard reading long-ass papers, so I might not update until next weekend. We'll see. That's it for me. Hope you enjoyed.**

**Oh, also I disclaim wholeheartedly. I own nothing. Same goes for the rest of the story.**


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto sighed in relief as he stepped from the churning waters onto the dry sand of Tenroujima's beach. As much as he told Mavis and Zeira that it was no problem, traversing miles of ocean using only his chakra was exhausting, if not physically, then mentally at least. Hours of walking with nothing but water to look at in every direction was monotonous at the best of times. When the person doing the walking couldn't even find the legend on a map, let alone his destination, the situation just becomes worse. And while he could always use his handy dandy Hiraishin, he stopped using that after his first attempt to visit his two young friends, when he found out that Mavis had taken to wearing the kunai as some sort of strange, extremely dangerous necklace. A necklace that she almost always kept on her person. Including when she was bathing. That was an experience he did not want to repeat again. He discovered two more things that day as well. One was that Mavis and Zeira bathed together regularly, and the other was that both girls, despite having lived in solitude through a good portion of their formative years, knew exactly what parts of a man's body hurt the most when hit. He would deny it until the day he, eventually, died, but he cried like a freshly spanked newborn after their assault had ended. Needless to say that all three were sufficiently embarrassed by what had transpired in that creek and agreed to never speak of it again.

Disastrous first meeting with Zeira aside, Naruto was greatly enjoying his visits to Tenrou over the past year. It had been far too long since he'd last gotten attached to anyone on a personal level. The knowledge that everyone you knew would someday die while you stood by watching, unable to do anything to help, seriously put a damper on that desire. But these girls had managed to worm their way into his circle of trust in record time. Zeira's dry wit and Mavis' intellect were extremely refreshing, if surprising attributes to be found in ones so young.

Every time he visited, which was about once a month, he would bring the girls a trinket of some sort from wherever he'd wandered recently, and they would sit around and talk about anything and everything except for Naruto's home. After eleven guesses, Mavis had still not come close to Naruto's age, and as such was no closer to hearing tales of a time lost to most of history. While disappointed that was no closer to her goal, she refused to get discouraged, always promising the aged shinobi that she would guess it next time. At this point he was considering just telling her how old he was, but the faces she made when she was so sure she'd gotten it right were the highlights of his month.

While he shied away from the topic of his home, he held no such compunctions about his ninja techniques. When asked, he would gladly showcase any number of jutsu that he had adopted or created over his long life. He dearly wished that the girls could use chakra or that he had some way of using magic so that he could take them on as students. They had expressed on a number of occasions, their desire to learn magic in order to protect each other, and in Naruto's mind, there was no better reason to acquire power than to use it to keep your loved ones safe. He decided that if the two of them ever expressed a desire to leave the island, the first thing he would do would be to find them a teacher for magic.

The blond snapped out of his reverie as he got closer to the library where Mavis and Zeira would be waiting. In his last three visits to the island, he had been assailed by a variety of traps, all courtesy of Mavis. In a test of both of their skills, the blonde girl had taken to setting up a veritable minefield of traps, big and small, to try and guess the ninja's most likely path on his way from the beach to the library. It was nothing dangerous; mostly just things to irritate him that he wouldn't be able to hide from the wannabe tactician like foul smelling mud placed in shallow pitfalls or slingshots loaded with small rocks meant to leave light bruises on his skin. Strangely enough, any traps that he could find were already triggered and made for a straight path the entire way to the large stone building. That fact alarmed him slightly, as he should have been the only one to come to the island recently and Zeira had learned to avoid any of the traps set by her best friend. However, he didn't panic because he knew that Mavis was smart enough to realize when she was in over her head. If that had happened, she would have thrown the kunai and he would have been here to help with whatever was going on.

Arriving at the library, he opened the door silently, hoping to sneak up on the girls before jumping out to scare them. Was it childish? Yes. Did he care? Hell no! Using his centuries of experience as a ninja, he crept through the rows of books on his way to the girls' favorite table situated in the back of the building near the windows that faced out into the forest. When he reached his destination, he did not find his two small friends as expected, but rather a single piece of paper covered with Mavis' neat script. It read:

Dear Naruto,

Treasure hunters have come to the island in search of the Tenrou Jade. I tried to stop them, but it seems my efforts were in vain as the Jade was already gone. We can only assume that it was taken by a member of Blue Skull that managed to survive the attack on Red Lizard seven years ago. Zeira and I have temporarily joined forces with the treasure hunters to ensure that we are able to recover what was lost. Also, more importantly, after beating one of the hunters in a game of wit, he's promised to let me meet the fairies! When I do meet them, I'll be sure to contact you via the kunai so that you can come and meet them as well! Our first stop will be the port town of Hargeon to gather any information on the Blue Skull member. From there we'll be playing it by ear, but I'm sure you'll be able to find us. If we don't hear from you by a week after the time you should be reading this, I'll throw the kunai to let you know where we've wound up. We'll see you soon! I just know I'll guess your age this time, so no dilly-dallying!

Love,

Mavis and Zeira

Naruto checked the date on the letter and frowned. It seemed they'd left only a week after he last departed, meaning they'd been traveling with a group of strange men for nearly three weeks. He didn't like that one bit. He folded the letter and placed it within a pocket of his cloak, spun on his heels, and walked determinedly back the way he'd just come. He'd have to hurry if he wanted to catch up with the girls and their new friends. He only hoped they didn't manage to land themselves in any trouble in the meantime.

As he had arrived at Tenroujima around midday, he made it back to the mainland in time to grab dinner at one of the local restaurants. As he paid his bill, he asked the waitress for directions to Hargeon Town. While he'd been through the town before, he had no idea of its' location relative to the town he was in. This wasn't a time for him to be getting 'lost on the road of life' or anything like that. He had to get to his friends to make sure they were ok. He may have trusted their judgment, but there were some things in this world beyond anyone's control. It didn't help that they were going out of their way to find a member of a guild that had completely annihilated their own a scant few years ago. It was for those reasons that he wanted to get to them as quickly as possible. He refused to let his first two friends in hundreds of years come to harm because he couldn't reach them in his course set, he made his way to the edge of town and hopped up into the trees before jumping quickly from branch to branch towards Hargeon.

He made good time to the small fishing town, arriving just as the sun began to peak over the trees. Unfortunately, that meant that he'd missed his best chance at gathering information for another few hours. The blond would have to wait for the bars to reopen before he could begin his task of finding where his two young friends had made off to. Until then though, he decided to rest and refuel, as even for him, running all night without sleep was quite exhausting.

Walking towards the smell of bread, he found himself at a small bakery just finishing baking their first loaves of bread. Naruto purchased a fresh loaf for his breakfast before making his way to a quieter part of town to get some shuteye.

He awoke a few hours later to the sight of a small boy no older than six about to jab a gnarled tree branch into his face. Slapping away the offending stick, he aimed a glare at the little boy for his rude awakening that sent the child running off back to his mother. Standing up and popping the kinks out of his neck and back, he checked the position of the sun before deciding that it was late enough in the day for the bars to start filling up. Looking in the areas of town nearest the docks, he found a single bar sitting back a ways from the street.

Strolling inside, he found far more people than he was expecting, which was good news for the blond. It meant that this place was a regular hangout for a group of people, most likely, a guild. Naruto ambled up to the barman, who stood wiping down glasses while looking over his newest customer in what he thought was a subtle way. Instead, the way he angled his head combined with the way his eyes were nearly crossed trying to get a look of the blond without the man noticing, made it look like he was suffering from a severe spinal injury. With the man, and judging by the glares behind him, the rest of the bar's patrons as well, already suspicious of Naruto, he decided to forgo subtlety and get his answers in the fastest way possible.

"I'm looking for a little blonde girl about this high," he brought his hand just below his ribs, "wearing a headband with what look like little wings on the side. Have you seen her?" the barman looked a strange mixture of angry, terrified, and slightly hopeful.

"Yeah, I seen the little psycho. Bitch comes in here asking questions she shouldn't ask and then tries to kill us all when we don't have the answers. You gonna do something bad to her when you find her? If so, we'd all be happy to lend a hand." He waved his hand at the patrons seated throughout the room who were all nodding along happily, ecstatic to get a chance to pay back the impudent little girl and her blade wielding babysitter.

Naruto only just managed to keep a frown off of his face as he responded in a completely neutral tone. "Actually, that 'little psycho' is my friend. I've been looking for her and my other friend to make sure they're alright. You all have obviously run into them, so which one of you wants to tell me where they went?" He swept his gaze around the room watching as each person's expression immediately soured. Whole tables at a time, men stood up, pulling clubs off of backs and knives out of pockets in preparation to attack the blond man. The sage sighed, "You really don't want to fuck with me right now. I'm not in the mood to play games." He closed his eyes trying to stave off the imminent headache, but it was no use.

The armed thugs took one menacing step forward before Naruto reacted. Spinning back to the bar, he shot his right hand out faster than most could blink, grabbed the barman behind his oblong head, and slammed him face first into the bar. Wood splintered and cartilage crunched as blood spewed from the man's broken nose. Before he could pull himself up, Naruto shifted his grip to the back of the barman's shirt and pulled, heaving the bloodied man up and over the bar. After completing a full revolution in the air, Naruto's dazed and confused victim wound up in front of the blond, facing the rest of the patrons and acting as a human shield. To complete his maneuver, he reached beneath his cloak, arm reemerging a moment later with a kunai in hand before he laid it to rest against the barman's throat. The whole thing took three seconds.

The armed men halted in their approach, gaping in astonishment at what had just befallen their comrade. No one moved for fear that the obviously unstable blond would snap and kill them all.

Naruto just stared unblinkingly at the terrified men's faces. "Now, is someone going to tell me what I want to know?" The air was thick with tension as each man waited for someone else to speak. Finally after a full thirty seconds of agonizing silence, the barman seemed to have come back to his senses and began to recount what had happened in a nasally voice.

"The girl and her friend came in looking for a guild. We didn't want to tell them nothin' so I told 'em to get out. We tried trappin' 'em in a rune circle when they didn't scram, but she figured we had a rune wrong and just walked out. Then she summoned this big-ass dog thing and tried to make it eat us. I told 'em what they wanted to know and they left. That's it, I swear!" the man relayed his story as fast as he could, so that they could be rid of the knife wielding madman. The rest of the bar stared at the blond expectantly, but he just returned their look.

"And what is it that you told them" He asked when the man seemed finished speaking. Yes, he had heard what transpired in the bar, but that didn't tell him where she'd gone from there.

"They were looking for Blue Skull. We sent 'em to Magnolia Town. Not like they're gonna find anything there. Place is a ghost town. Blue Skull's master keeps all the citizens under his thumb. Ain't nothin' goes on in that city that he don't know about."

Naruto was glad he could get this information from them in a relatively peaceful manner, but there was still one more piece of information he needed. "I appreciate you're willingness to share all of this with me, but there's one more thing I need you to do for me." He trailed off ominously to see their reactions, and he was not disappointed. Each thug looked about ready to drop from the palpable tension in the room. Their wary faces grew more and more worried with each passing second until finally…

"Which way is Magnolia from here?"

The effect was instant. Every single one of them looked dumbfounded by the simplicity of the request. Then came the chuckling which soon evolved into full blown laughter that finally dissolved into relieved sobbing. Eventually, Naruto and the barman were the only two standing upright in a bar full of weeping men. Naruto just took his knife away from the barman's throat before spinning him around and staring expectantly.

The man quickly caught on and said, "Just head straight west from here. There's a path that leads all the way to the town. You can't miss it." The barman dearly hoped that was enough to satisfy the crazed man in front of him. Hopefully this would be enough information and he would leave them alone. He gazed in fear at the blank-faced man for a few moments, but then the unthinkable happened. The stoic man smiled. It was the single most frightening thing that the fully grown barman had ever experienced, and as a result, he promptly fainted.

Naruto looked on curiously at the unmoving body of the man he was about to thank, shrugged, and turned to face the other men in the bar. He found them hugging and congratulating each other on the fact that they had survived the harrowing ordeal. They were so caught up in their celebration, that the fact that Naruto had yet to leave completely escaped their notice. Rolling his eyes, the shinobi headed to the door and out into the sunlight. Some people were just plain weird.

Mavis stood in the main room of her new guild. It had taken nearly two and a half weeks for the construction crew to renovate the building they'd been offered by the city for driving out Blue Skull, but it was finally done, and now the fruits of their hard work were laid before her eyes. Sure, they needed more tables and chairs, and the bar, was un-stocked, and they needed to get some lacrima in here for the lights if they wanted to stay past sundown, but it was unequivocally hers. Well, hers and Zeira's, and Yury's, and Warrod's, and Precht's…but still, this was all her idea, her dream given life around her. Plus, since it was her idea, that meant that she got to be master! Master Mavis Vermillion, chaser of fairies, user of fairy magic, and first master of the guild called Fairy Tail. Yeah, she liked the sound of that.

She did notice something else missing, besides all of the regular amenities one would find in your average guild…Naruto still had not arrived! But she could rectify that. She reached into the top of her dress before fishing out the special kunai Naruto gifted her. The ex-treasure hunters looked confused and a bit worried at the fact that the bright girl that they'd come to know in the past few weeks made a habit of keeping an extremely sharp knife beneath her shirt. They'd never seen it before, so they could only assume that she was either gifted at hiding it among the rest of her things, or she hadn't taken it off once in the month since they'd met. If she found no reason to use it while fighting for their lives against both Blue Skull and a possessed Yury wreaking havoc as an enormous dragon skeleton, then what possible reason could she have for bringing it out now, when things had finally become peaceful?

The blonde girl seemed a strange mixture of worried and excited as she paced to the most open part of the guild floor. Turning back to face her friends, the worry disappeared and she sent them all a beaming smile. "Yury, Prect, Warrod, would you like to see something amazing?" she asked with a mischievous gleam in her eye. The three men glanced at each other warily before turning to Zeira with a questioning look on their faces.

Zeira just shook her head with a smile and pointed back to Mavis. "Just let her express her inner showman. We've never gotten to be on this end before. Even I'm kind of looking forward to it." Her cryptic words only seemed to confuse her elders even further. Her smile widened, but when she turned back to look at Mavis, the smile immediately fell from her face. The reason was because Mavis was standing there casually, one hand on her hip and the other spinning the kunai around one finger by the ring like she'd seen Naruto do so many times before. "Mavis!" she yelled, hands on her hips and a scolding frown on her face. "How many times have Naruto and I told you not to do that? You'll poke your eye out!"

Mavis stopped spinning the knife and began to sulk. "But Naruto does it all the time." She whined. "It makes him look so cool. I wanna look that cool!"

But Zeira was having none of it. "Naruto has years of practice playing with ultra-sharp and dangerous knives. You, on the other hand, have no such experience." She scolded. She heard a grumbled 'And whose fault is that', and sighed, relenting a little. "If you can find a totally blunt kunai to practice with, I suppose you could go ahead and try. If you're going to do it anyway, you might as well be safe about it."

Mavis immediately brightened and rushed over to her friend, engulfing her in a hug, careful not to stab Zeira in the back with the blade. "Thank you!" she cried. "You're the best!" She let go of her friend and spun around a few times in some strange facsimile of a dance before snapping back to reality and facing the exasperated group in front of her. Clearing her throat, she addressed them. "As I was saying before; do you three want to see something amazing?"

By this point the three older men just wanted the girl to calm down. They had never seen her this excited about something before. Deciding that going along with whatever the girl was spouting would calm her quicker than anything else, they responded affirmatively.

"Yeah."

"Sure. Why not?"

"If you insist."

Waving her arms in a come hither motion, she beckoned the men and Zeira to form a loose semi-circle with herself in the middle. Sharing an excited look with her best friend, she spoke to the others with a small smirk on her face. She couldn't wait to see their reactions!

"Watch," she said, pulling her arm back, "And be amazed!" She threw the kunai with all her might and it soared through the air for about six feet before embedding itself into the wooden floor with a "thunk." All was silent for a few moments before Yury opted to speak.

"So…um…that was…cool. Good uh…throw?"

Mavis just brushed him off. "Just wait. He'll come any moment now. Just keep watching." She stared intently at the kunai not moving a muscle, not even daring to blink lest she miss his arrival. This brought everyone's attention back to the seemingly innocuous knife sticking out of the newly replaced floorboards.

Behind them, the door to the guild opened, admitting a single person before it closed again and silence reigned. The new arrival observed them for a moment and then decided to speak.

"What are you all doing?" He was genuinely curious. Their clustered bodies blocked any view of what it was they were staring so intently at.

"We're waiting for our friend to appear. He should be here by now." she told the man.

The traveler raised his eyebrow at that declaration. Why would they be staring at a floor if they were waiting for someone to show up? Wouldn't it be more logical to watch the door? He took a few steps forward to look over the blonde girl's shoulder at the subject of their interest. Ah, that made sense then. He thought he'd felt it just a few moments ago, though he ignored it because he was already so close. He considered informing them of his arrival, but the whole situation was just too wonderful to ruin, so instead, they settled back down to watch the knife.

Nearly fifteen seconds passed before Zeira's curiosity got the better of her and she decided to see who had decided to venture into their guild. What she saw made her feel extremely foolish and a tad bit disappointed. She'd really wanted to see the looks on the treasure hunters' faces. Oh well, she'd just have to settle for Mavis.

"Naruto!" she shouted in surprise.

"I know! What could be taking him so long? He said he'd come as soon as it was thrown, so why isn't he here yet?" Mavis looked confused at her fellow blond's lack of appearance.

"Maybe he knows you're not in any danger so he's ignoring what's obviously an attempt to impress some new friends." Naruto hypothesized. By this point, Mavis was the only one left staring at the kunai embedded in the floorboards. Zeira had both hands over her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles, while the three treasure hunters shared an amused glance having figured out the newest arrival's identity. "Or maybe," he added, "He was already nearby when you threw it and decided to take the long way here."

Mavis hummed in thought. "That's possible I suppose, but if he really was that close then he should have been here already, and the only ones here are-" she cut herself off as the realization finally struck. Spinning around, she flung herself into the older blond's arms with a happy cry.

"Naruto! You're here!" Her beaming smile suddenly mored into a frown. "Where were you? You were supposed to flash in and wow our new friends! Zeira and I really wanted to see their faces and you just had to go and ruin it didn't you?"

She looked up a Naruto with narrowed eyes and hands in hips waiting for his response. The shinobi simply stared back, unperturbed by Mavis' rapid-fire speech.

"I was already in town when you threw the kunai, so I decided to just walk here. I wanted to talk to the towns people and get an idea of what was going on before I came to meet you guys. This whole town looks like a bomb went off." He turned to address the group as a whole at this point. "The stuff I heard in town was sort of far fetched, so if you don't mind, can someone explain exactly what happened?" He turned back to Mavis and Zeira as he added, "And would either of you care to explain why you went traipsing around the mainland with a group of strange men without telling me first?" Naruto tried to look and sound disappointed and reproachful, but with his youthful voice and appearance, he came out looking more petulant and betrayed.

"Isn't everyone a strange man when you're a thirteen year old girl?" Zeira asked, looking highly amused at Naruto's sudden bout of overprotectiveness. "And besides, these three are completely harmless," she added, smirking toward the treasure hunters.

All three young men took offense to that comment and Yury made to reply, but was cut off by Mavis. Eyes wide and brimming with unshed tears, she clasped her hands in front of her in a pleading manner before gazing up at Naruto and speaking in her best puppy dog voice. "We're really sorry Naruto. I was gonna use the kunai, but you said it was for emergencies only, and I knew Zeira and I could handle ourselves if something did go wrong, and I didn't want to interrupt you in case you were doing something super important like saving the world, and you're always saying that we should go out and explore the world, so I thought it would be alright, and I really hope you're not mad at us, because if you were, I'd be sooooo sad, and I wouldn't know what to do if you weren't my friend anymore, so please, please, please say you'll forgive us!" Finished with her spiel, Mavis held her pleading pose but stood gasping for breath as she continued her impromptu staring contest with the blond man in front of her.

The treasure hunters looked at the gasping girl with pity. The cloaked man facing the group looked like serious business. He looked young, but they could tell from his eyes that this guy had seen things. Things that no one that young should see. This was the kind of man who doled out harsh punishments to those who broke the rules. Just how harsh remained to be seen though, so they stood with baited breath, ready to intervene on behalf of their young friend should whatever the blond man choose to do be to extreme for such a young and innocent girl.

Naruto finally moved and the three treasure hunters tensed, but instead of the vicious scolding or possibly even physical violence they were expecting, the large blond man dropped to his knees in front of Mavis before throwing his arms wide and engulfing the girl in a massive bear hug, tears streaming down his face in rivers while he blubbered semi-incoherently about not being able to stay mad at such sweet and innocent little girls.

Shaking off her moment of surprise at her ploy actually working, Mavis patted the wailing man-child on his head a few times and then looked back over her shoulder at the rest if the room. She failed to hold back a giggle at the sight that awaited her. Her three newest friends were slumped over mouths agape and eyes wide at the completely unexpected turn of events, while Zeira stood a few feet to their left, massaging her forehead with one hand and trying her best to hold in an exasperated sigh at Naruto's extreme over reaction. This scene was an almost exact replica of one that had occurred a few months ago after Naruto had scolded the two of them for trying to snoop in his belongings. All they had done was cracked mildly rebuked expressions and he had almost instantly proclaimed how sorry he was for being 'too harsh' on them. Mavis had found it to be part of the ancient man's charm, but personally, Zeira suspected that hundreds of years devoid of genuine human interaction and companionship had left the shinobi a bit cracked in the head. Of course, she wouldn't say that to his face for fear of drowning in the subsequent torrent of tears.

It took a good five minutes to get Naruto's manic sobbing under control, but when he did stop, his transition back into a cool and composed figure of authority was frighteningly abrupt. Back in control of himself, he faced the group with a serious expression on his youthful face.

"Alright Mavis, Zeira, I'm sorry for my reaction. I was out of line. I'm not your father and I have no say in what you do with your lives," he began, "But, as your friend, I would have appreciated a more timely warning when you decide to go gallivanting off with three strangers who you knew little to nothing about." Both girls looked properly mollified and nodded at Naruto's reasoning. It was unfair of them to leave Tenroujima without properly notifying Naruto first. He was the closest thing they had to a guardian since Red Lizard's annihilation seven years previous.

Naruto, seeing their expressions and deciding they had learned their lesson, gave them a soft smile and decided to move on. "So, how about this; I don't know about you all, but I'm starving. How about we go find ourselves some lunch so I can get to know your three new friends here and you can fill me in as to what you've all been doing these past three weeks. Sound good?" When he received a round of nods in reply, he spun on his heels and strolled back to the door of the guild. Pausing mid-stride, he threw a look over his shoulder and asked, "Err...is there any place to actually get food around here? The towns sort of a mess. Hehe it looks like a dragon came rampaging through here." Noticing a collective wince from the group of five behind him, he heaved a weary sigh. He was getting too old for this shit.

**A/N: So this is crazy fucking late. Sorry about that. I had about a third of this written two days after I posted the first chapter, but school, sickness, and my laptop catching fire faster than Katniss Everdeen put the rest of this on hold. I had to write most of this (including this A/N) on my iPad, so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors. I'll look this back over when I get my laptop fixed and hopefully correct any mistakes. **

**I don't especially like this chapter but it's gonna have to do for now. I still have no clue what direction this story is going, but there will probably be a few chapters of post-Mavis pre-cannon Naruto traveling around before returning to Fairy Tail, just to add a little bit of originality to this story. **

**Finally, it's finals week and I've got three more exams before I'm done with school, so I'm not sure when I'll get the next chapter out. Hopefully quicker than this one. I really appreciate all the nice things y'all have had to say about this story so far, so thanks for that. Hope y'all enjoyed. **


	3. Chapter 3

The group of six soon found themselves sitting in one of the few remaining cafes left standing after Magnolia's near-total destruction. Once they got settled and placed their orders, Naruto turned a stern look on the rest of the group.

"So start talking. I'm pretty sure I came through here a few years ago and the town certainly didn't look like this. Start from the beginning though, with those three's," he gestured to the treasure hunters, "arrival on the island, and why it is you took off without telling me." His frown made the two young girls look down in shame, but they schooled their expressions and began taking turns to tell the tale of their journey from Tenroujima to Magnolia. Naruto's face remained expressionless throughout their story, not wavering in the slightest.

"And so, to stop Yuri from destroying the town and killing anyone, I used the magic we were taught to disable him without hurting him." Mavis said with a smile.

Naruto considered this for a moment before turning to the girl. "What kind of magic allowed you to subdue a rampaging dragon skeleton so easily?"

Mavis giggled and clapped her hands together excitedly. "It's this amazing lost magic called Law!"

If she was expecting Naruto to be wowed by her knowledge of such an advanced form of magic, she was sorely disappointed. Instead, those at the table noticed his entire body tense, and his face twisting to look like he had just swallowed something extremely sour.

Naruto had only encountered the magic of Law twice in his overlong existence, and neither occasion was one he would likely forget. The first was before the advent of the guild system, when mages roamed around the country, taking work wherever they could find it. Often times, the weaker mages would band together under a stronger, more experienced mage for protection, much like the guilds that existed today. However, instead of basing themselves out of a single city, they would wander in large groups across the country to wherever the work was most plentiful.

One of these groups had, instead of taking the rather low-paying jobs offered by civilians looking for a helping hand, started attacking small settlements along the Seven-Fiore border taking anything that suited their fancy and leaving the towns a mere husk of their former selves. While the majority of the mages making up the troupe were rather insignificant in terms of magical ability, their leader was something else entirely. The twisted man had at sometime in his travels stumbled across the secrets of Law and perverted them to suit his needs. If whatever poor town he and his gang arrived in didn't acquiesce to their every whim, the leader would work his magic and every life in the village, bar his own followers', would be snuffed out instantly. The group would then take what they desired and move along to their next victims, leaving the streets full of pale cooling bodies behind them.

His group of murderers and bandits continued like this through eight small villages and towns before Naruto stumbled upon their handiwork and tracked them to a large trading outpost straddling the borders of Fiore, Bosco, and Seven. Once he identified the leader; not hard considering the ridiculous amount of fine jewelry that adorned his body, as well as the gleaming crown situated atop his head, he had no qualms about sneaking into the tavern the group had "acquired" for the night and ending the man's life as he slept. At another point in time, Naruto would have tried to convince him of the error of his ways, but he had been around far too long to not fully realize that there would always those for whom human life held no meaning. If these kinds of people were left to their own devices, they would continue to murder and steal to their hearts content. With the death of their most powerful ally, the group of men quickly parted ways in search of new associates to keep them safe.

But it wasn't this encounter with the terrifying magic of Law that made him so weary of the fact that Mavis had learned it. Naruto knew that she was a kind soul and would never use the power her magic granted her to do anything but protect those she held dear. No, the uneasy feeling settling in his stomach came from his second, most recent encounter with the ancient spell. The event itself was extremely brief, but it only served to drive home the fact that certain lost magics were "lost" for a reason; that being that they were very, _very_ dangerous to attempt if not fully mastered.

The second practitioner of Law that Naruto had the misfortune to meet had been ambushing travelers and traders on one of the main roads between the peninsula of Sin and the Pergrande Kingdom. Naruto had been on his way to enjoy some nice wholesome relaxation on the lovely beaches of Sin when the group of bandits took the seemingly young man traveling by himself as an easy target and leapt out from their hiding spots to attack him. Without breaking his stride, the immortal grabbed his closest attacker's sloppy punch out of the air and proceed to swing the man around like a bullwhip, sending his flailing legs and feet into the faces of the man-turned-weapon's comrades. Tossing the heaving man aside lest he get his favorite - read only - cloak dirty, Naruto turned a raised eyebrow the only man left standing, the apparent leader of the ragtag group. The man sputtered before stumbling back a few steps and taking a fighting stance. He then proceeded to throw _leaves _of all things at the one-time leaf ninja.

It quickly became obvious to the bandit that such mundane attacks would be ineffectual against the blond who continued his leisurely stroll toward his attacker while using the smallest of movements to twist his body out of the path of what looked to Naruto to be extremely sharp leaves. In response to this, the bandit took a few more hasty steps back before looking up, staring over the blond's shoulder, and smirking victoriously.

Confused at his attacker's sudden shift in demeanour, Naruto threw a glance behind him to see if there was something he'd missed in the previous attack. Seeing nothing of interest, he shrugged before turning back to face his would-be mugger. What he saw though, made him stumble for the first time since the group of men jumped from the bushes nearly one minute earlier.

Clasped between the man's outstretched hands was a compact, brightly glowing orb of pure light. Momentarily astounded that the mediocre mage in front of him was knowledgeable of such an esoteric and powerful spell, Naruto paused in wonder at the strangeness of it all. Capitalizing on his victims distraction, the bandit moved to clap his hands together and end the blond man's life.

The bandit's movement snapped Naruto out of his internal musings and he cursed himself for being distracted so easily. He kicked off toward the mage at blistering speeds, fist poised to blast the man into unconsciousness. He knew almost instantly that it would be a futile effort. The bandit's hands were moving closer and closer together and would touch instants before Naruto could reach him.

He braced himself for what would come next. He wasn't quite sure what actually happen, but it surely would not be pleasant. Even after all this time, after all of the research he had done into his..._immortality_, if that was even what this was, he was unsure as to whether or not his presence here was truly permanent or if it could be snuffed out by something or some_one_ powerful enough.

At this point in his life, he wasn't afraid of death. The looming threat of time taking it's toll on one's body withered away after the first two centuries or so. No, he was much more worried about what would happen if this _didn't _kill him. As far as he had seen, the magic of Law left no physical indications of damage on the body. It was as if their soul simply got up and left, leaving their bodies to just drop to the ground where they had stood.

If this magic of Law truly did attack one's soul, then what would happen to him? Any physical damage he had ever sustained had been dealt with as a non issue. He'd been beaten, stabbed, cut up, blown up, and just altogether _fucked up_, but none of that could damage something as ethereal as his soul, which as far as he could tell, refused to leave his body. But what would happen when something came along and tried to force his soul from his body? Would it give up and depart without a fight? Stand tall and weather the influx of magic without issue? Or would it fight and fight to stay housed within him while Law swept in and tore it apart piece by piece until all that was left was a mere shadow of what once was?

No, Naruto was not afraid of death at this point, but he was absolutely terrified of being condemned to a half-life for all eternity; being unable to think, to act, to _feel_ like he once did.

And so, as he closed his eyes in that final instant, a fleeting thought crossed his mind: that if he did die here, soul extinguished and heart stopped, he dearly, truly hoped that his corpse had built up enough momentum to break this asshole's face in when they connected.

But as bright light flashed in front of him, things did not simply stop. The wind was still rushing past his ears, his muscles and eyelids were still clenched impossibly tight, and he was still cognizant enough to realize these facts.

And all at once, the sound of the wind was replaced by a nice meaty _thwack_ as Naruto's fist connected with the bandits face. He allowed himself a moment to enjoy the satisfying feeling that accompanied the sound before he realized there was something missing. There should have been a large _crunch_ to go along with the _thwack_ as his fist broke the asshole's nose. And now that he thought about it, the _thwack_ hadn't sounded like it normally should. It was a bit too _wet_. And speaking of wet, the blood dripping from his fist was the wrong consistency. It lacked the sticky, slimey feeling of snot ejected from the shattered sinus cavities mixed in with the thick but runny this in only a second, Naruto opened his eyes to discover what was causing all of these anomalies.

The sight that met him was one that he had honestly never seen before, even in more than seven centuries of life. It sickened him almost as much as it amazed and intrigued him. Because as many times as he had heard someone threaten to turn their enemy (usually Naruto himself) _inside out_, he had never actually seen someone follow up on that threat. It was certainly an eye-opener for the immortal.

Muscles and organs lay exposed in the open air, flecked with dirt from his trip across the ground courtesy of Naruto's fist. His head, which moments ago had been topped with shaggy brown hair was now covered by a nearly uniform layer of pink, fleshy...flesh. His eyes remained unaltered bar the disappearance of eyelids, and his nose had been inverted to where all that remained was a thumb-sized hole that Naruto assumed was the man's nasal passage. Below that hole sat another, larger hole, ringed with yellowed teeth jutting out at every possible angle. Inside his mouth, Naruto could see the coarse and wiry strands of the man's untrimmed beard bunching up with the excess skin of his neck and slowly restricting his airways. The immortal's eyes travelled down until they rested on the bandit's still beating heart, dangling listlessly off the side of his chest. Lungs stutteringly inflated as the man drew harsh, painful breaths. Intestines spilled on either side of him, a few still sliding away, giving the appearance of a writhing mass of gelatinous slugs.

It was a horrible and grisly sight, and had Naruto been anyone else, he would have thrown up every last thing in his stomach until naught but bile remained. As it was, he took a few moments to observe the slowly dying man, imprinting this sight into his memory as a reminder not to trifle with what you don't understand. Slowly he pulled a gleaming silver kunai from under his cloak and knelt down next to what only moments ago had been a hale and hearty if slightly haggard man. No one deserved to suffer like this. Well, Naruto could think of a couple people, but as this man was neither an egocentric sociopath nor a psychotic goddess intent on killing every last soul on the planet, Naruto would do him a kindness and put him out of his misery.

As he brought the kunai to hover over the man's head, the inverted bandit took one last rasping breath. As the knife began it's descent, the man attempted to utter out one last word. "N-"

"-aruto! Helloooo? Naruto? Are you in there?" Naruto snapped out of his memories with a sharp shake of his head and glanced up to see Mavis standing before him waving her hand in front of his suddenly pale face.

He was out of his seat in a (literal) flash, grasping Mavis under her arms and lifting her until her head was even with his own. His eyes roved over her petite body, searching for anything out of place on her frame. When he couldn't find anything wrong, he relaxed for a moment, letting his shoulders unbunch and his arms drop down a bit. Suddenly he tensed again and lifted Mavis up, higher than before, bringing her directly over him, before tilting his head and looking up the skirt of her dress.

For a moment all was silent. Zeira palmed her face in embarrassment, while the three treasure hunters looked on wonderingly, trying to puzzle out how the cloaked blond managed to walk while lugging around such an enormous pair of big brass balls. Passerbies looked on scornfully as the obviously-a-pedophile so brazenly looked up the young girls skirt. Mavis' mouth dropped into a surprised "oh" for a moment before her face flushed brighter than anyone had thought possible. Once her flush had reached it's peak, it was only a moment before she screamed.

"Kyaaaaaa!" Kicking her feet out, Mavis made contact with Naruto's nose, snapping it with a resounding _crack_. As his head shot back, blood and mucus spewing forth from his nose, his grip loosened enough for Mavis to wriggle free and drop none-too-gracefully to the ground.

"What did you do that for?!" Mavis yelled, face still retaining it's glowing blush.

"What'ya mean, 'what was that for'? What was _that_ for?" Naruto hollered back gesturing wildly to his broken nose.

Mavis huffed, crossing her arms, looking none too pleased with the ancient man's obliviousness. "You went peeking up my dress! I'm not ready to take that step yet! We haven't even had our first date!" It took a moment for her words to register in her own ears and the blush that had been fading steadily returned with a vengeance.

Naruto stared at her in confusion until it hit him, and then his face changed to one of extreme embarrassment as he began to stutter out some form of response to the younger blonde's declaration.

"I...er...um...well that's...uh...maybe when you're uh older...and have, um, grown up a bit?" he half said, half questioned. Centuries of trial and error and he was still an awkward mess when it came to discussing relationships.

That brought the rest of the small group, who had been snickering quietly amongst themselves, up short. Their joyful and amused faces instantly morphed into those of worry and sadness. As one, they turned to Mavis, whose head was bowed, drooping bangs shadowing her eyes from the others.

Naruto's expression shifted from awkward embarrassment to worry in a blink, and a mask of seriousness slipped back over his features.

"What is it? Did something happen?" He paused to think for a moment. "Something went wrong when you cast Law didn't it?"

That brought Mavis' head snapping up. Her slightly watery eyes searched Naruto's, looking for answers that he didn't have.

"You know about Law?" she asked, hoping against hope that maybe, just maybe he knew of some way to fix her, to make her _normal_. She'd thought that she had gotten over it, accepted that she would stay a prepubescent girl for the rest of her life, but seeing Naruto again brought home the fact that she would never have a chance with him now. Her far off and completely improbable dreams of _marriage_ and _a family_ with Naruto, or hell, with _anybody_ were gone, crushed by the fact that she would never age to maturity, never be able to bear children, be forever looked down upon as naught but a silly little girl.

Naruto's voice interrupted her introspection, but she missed what he said. "Come again?"

"I said 'I do'" Naruto repeated. "I've...er...met two people before who used Law. The second one I met, I don't know where he learned it, but when he tried to use it, he was...hurt. Badly. But since you're still standing here talking to me, you obviously got off better than he did. So why don't you tell me what happened and I'll do anything within my power to help make it better." He finished with a comforting smile, only slightly hindered by the fact that dried blood still covered most of the bottom of his face as well as his neck and parts of his cloak. Mavis noticed absently that he must have reset his nose at some point in the conversation, as apart from the blood it looked good as new.

"When I used Law to stop Yury after he got possessed by the Tenrou Jade," She saw Yury grimace out of the corner of her eye, but continued on. "I knew I couldn't use it perfectly, but I thought I had enough control over it to keep it from hurting anybody." Her frown deepened. "I guess I was wrong. After I cast the spell, my body got really hot. It felt like I was burning up from the inside, and right when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, the heat went away and there was this flash of freezing cold. It was the coldest thing I've ever felt, like everything inside of me was turning to ice. I...I don't really remember anything after that. When I woke up, the doctors told me that I… that I'll never age beyond the point that I am now. That no matter how old I get, I'll look like this for the rest of my life." She let out a single choked sob as she finished her story, before standing up straight and forcing a smile to the surface. "But that's ok!" she said with as much brightness as she could muster. "If this is the price I have to pay to help my friends then that's perfectly fine. If I had to, I would do it all over again, because if my friends can't rely on me to help when they need it, how can I rely on them?"

Naruto gave her a bright smile. "That's a great sentiment to have. You remind me a lot of myself when I was young." he said warmly. "And about the whole not aging thing, well, it's certainly not the worst thing that could happen!" he continued, optimism ringing clear in his voice. "I've never had someone else not age with me before. Well, at least not someone that I spend a lot of time with. It'll be a novel experience!"

Mavis, spirits buoyed, crossed over to where Naruto still sat on the ground and embraced him in a tight hug, whispering her thanks in his ear. When she let go, she paused for a moment before remembering how they had gotten started on this conversation in the first place.

"So why did you see fit to go peeking up my dress?" she asked one half curiosity, one half righteous indignation.

Naruto chuckled a bit, scratching the back of his head. Inside he was sweating, trying desperately to remember his thought process that brought him to think looking up a twelve year old's dress was a good idea.

"Ah...um...well ya see...remember that other guy that I mentioned who used Law?" Mavis nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, well, uh he sort of _turnedhimselfinsideoutanddied_." he finished in a rush.

The quintet of non-ninja tried to clean out their ears in an attempt to understand just what had been said. Precht spoke up for the whole group after a moment.

"Could you repeat that? I think we misheard you." Naruto jerked and looked over at the table, seemingly having forgotten that he and Mavis were not alone in this discussion.

Naruto swallowed and repeated his last sentence, this time slower. "I said that the last guy I saw use Law turned himself inside out after using it to try to kill me." The rest of the group's eyes widened and jaws dropped. Warrod was the first to recover.

"When you say 'inside out', you mean like…" he trailed off gesturing vaguely, having no idea how to phrase his question.

"Yeah, like, organs flopping around like fish, muscles and fat on the outside, skin and hair on the inside." he explained with a grimace. The group was once again silent for a few moments before Yury summed up all of their thoughts.

"Holy shit." he breathed. "You mean that could've happened to Mavis?"

Naruto nodded solemnly and Mavis gulped. She was really beginning to regret her chosen field of magic. Now that she thought about it, staying cute, cuddly, and sweet for the rest of her days didn't seem so bad.

Standing up and brushing off his cloak, Naruto and Mavis returned to their seats at the table and made an effort to change the subject.

"So," Naruto said, looking at the three treasure hunters across from him with a bright smile on his still-bloodied face. "Who are you and why shouldn't I kill you for taking these two," he said pointing at Mavis and Zeira, "away from their home, on a dangerous adventure, without telling me first?"

Precht choked on his food and Yury spat out his drink while Warrod clapped both of them on the back to abate their sudden coughing fits. All three were looking surprised and a bit fearful at the smiling blond man. Well, at least until Zeira and Mavis both took it upon themselves to reign in the slightly deranged ninja by slapping him, not without some force, on the back of his head.

"Naruto!" Zeira exclaimed sharply, reproach heavy in her voice. "You can't go around threatening to kill our friends just because you feel left out!" Naruto hung his smarting head, a frown on his face.

"Who said it was a threat?" he mumbled childishly. Zeira and Mavis were his first close friends in more than three centuries. Was it so bad to make sure that these two sweet girls didn't get hurt in any way. It was obvious to him that he needed to take a more active role in their lives if he wanted to protect them. They'd been safe enough on Tenroujima, cut off from the evils of the world. But now that they had experienced the real world and all of the wonders it held, there was no way they would want to return to boring old Tenrou. No, they would fight tooth and nail to stay here no matter what he said or did. As it was, he might as well make nice with their new friends. It couldn't hurt to have a few guy friends for the first time in a long while. He sighed. He was getting too soft.

"Sorry, it's been awhile since I've had to actually talk to people and I'm still getting used to it. I'm Naruto." he said, nodding his head and giving the three men an apologetic smile. Warrod recovered first and extended his hand across the table to the shinobi.

"Warrod Sequen. Pleasure to meet you Naruto." Giving the blond a firm handshake, he sat back and waited for his friends to introduce themselves. Precht was next, giving the shinobi an appraising look as he offered his hand to shake.

"Precht Gaebolg." he said as they shook hands, not offering anything else. Finally, Yury introduced himself.

"Yury Dreyar, King of Awesome." he exclaimed with a cheeky grin.

Naruto leaned back in his chair with a curious look on his face. "So this guy that taught you all magic. Did you manage to get his name? Seems really irresponsible to teach a twelve year old something as powerful and dangerous as Law and not even explain what could go wrong with it." This had been bothering him since Mavis and Zeira had reached this part in their story. They were extremely vague when it came to describing their time in the forest learning their respective magics. One thing they had been clear on was that it was a single person who taught all of them. One man who was talented and knowledgeable enough to teach five people five completely different types of magic, including one as powerful as Law. Naruto liked to think he knew or knew of any mage worth hearing about anywhere this side of Bellum, and the people he could think of who would be able to accomplish this made up a very short list. A very short list of people that he dearly hoped had not gotten that close to Zeira and Mavis without him even knowing about it. He looked up at the five of them expectantly, awaiting an answer.

Mavis looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging. "You know, I don't think I actually ever caught his name." She looked around at her friends. "Did any of you?" When all of them either shrugged or shook their heads in the negative, she furrowed her eyebrows and struck a thinking pose. "Well he was sort of skinny, he had black hair that sort of stuck out at the top," she demonstrated this by sticking her hand atop her head and wiggling her fingers, "He had a black coat and a white shawl draped across his shoulder. Oh! And he had this really terrible magic that killed everything he touched." she finished with a smile.

Naruto stared at her wide-eyed, hoping that he'd misheard. Because the man she just described was number one on the 'List of people I don't want within 100 kilometers of Mavis and Zeira'.

Zeref Dragneel. AKA The Black Mage Zeref..

Shit.

Naruto was not happy. Part of his self-imposed mission as an immortal wanderer was, as of about 300 years ago, to keep tabs on Zeref, and if he could, reign the boy in when he became unstable. The fact that Zeref was in Fiore was unwelcome news indeed, considering that the last Naruto had heard, he was moping around somewhere in the East of the Pergrande Kingdom. That's a long fucking way from Southeast Fiore. Someone, somewhere in his information network was going to get a stern talking to.

It wasn't even that Naruto hated Zeref. In fact, 80 percent of the time, he was a kind and gentle soul. He was one of the few people Naruto could relate to anymore, being immortal himself, and sometimes, when either one was feeling a bit personable, they would seek the other out for a few weeks of human interaction before they both retreated into seclusion.

But the other 20 percent of the time, when Zeref lost his shit and decided that the human race was in need of some cleansing? Well those were the times that the shinobi truly dreaded. Because Zeref didn't do things in half measures. If Zeref wanted to kill shit, he would well and truly _kill shit_. Trying to fight Zeref, whose magic's _only_ purpose was to kill everything, was hard enough, but doing it while also trying to contain the walking natural disasters that he birthed from nothing and keep _them_ from killing everything in sight was just too much for one man to handle. Luckily, he had only needed to do so three times in the last 300 or so years. A few months, once every century, dedicated to creating sentient weapons of mass destruction and parading them around Earthland for some indiscriminate killing, wasn't nearly as bad as it could be. Hell, Naruto could hardly even blame the kid. He'd felt the urge once or twice to just snap and kill everything in sight. Living for hundreds and hundreds of years with very little extended human contact could be a little taxing on the mind.

The good news about all of this was that, if the pattern held true, Zeref should be calm, cool, and collected for another 70 or 80 years _at least_. That was brilliant news because it meant that he wouldn't be a danger to Mavis and Zeira because they would most likely already be dead by then! Thank goodness for small miracles!

Shit. That was kinda morbid.

Shaking his head vigorously to abandon that train of thought, his eyes regained focus and he saw the five novice wizards giving him a queer look.

"So do you know who he is then Naruto?" Mavis asked. She would really like to know who she could thank for helping her save her friends and all of Magnolia with the magic he taught them.

Naruto frowned. "Yeah, his names Zeref." He heard gasps from around the table. "I take it you've heard of him then?"

Precht regained his voice first. "Yes. The Black Mage Zeref. One of the most evil wizards of all time. It's said that he created countless horrors. Demons that could wipe out entire settlements with a single spell. But he was born centuries ago, there's no way that he could have been the one to teach us. The boy who taught us couldn't have been much older than us. In fact, he may have been younger."

Naruto shook his head once more. "No, if he was as Mavis described, then it was definitely Zeref. He's one of the few people I can think of who would be knowledgeable enough to teach you all such varied magics. And of those few, he's the only I can think of who'd be wandering around the forests of Fiore. The rest hold important positions in various governments and wouldn't have time to go on a walkabout through the forest." Precht looked a bit put out at being contradicted and asked haughtily,

"What is it that makes you such an expert on a long dead dark mage? You're what, 20? 21?"

Naruto glanced over at Mavis and Zeira, surprised that they had yet to mention his immortality. Zeira caught his look and turned to the three treasure hunters.

"Naruto looks young for his age." At this, Mavis snorted. "Like really, really, _really_ young."

That seemed to grab their attention. Precht and Warrod had appraising looks on their faces as they considered this. Yury just looked confused.

"So you're what? Like 30? 35?"

Naruto shot Yury an amused smirk. "No, not exactly. Suffice to say, that to me, Zeref is just getting out of his diapers."

Warrod spoke up next, "So just how old are you? The way you're talking, it's like you're hundreds of years old. But that's impossible."

"Ah, but you see, it is very possible." Naruto paused. "At least, I'm pretty sure it's possible. I don't _think_ I've dreamt up the last few centuries. But then again, it has happened before. The last time I ran into Metalicana, he punched me through two mountains. I was unconscious for about a week. I had some of the most vivid dreams. In one of them I was swimming in Ramen Ocean and the ramaids came up from their homes at the bottom to serenade me while they fed and b-" he cut himself off with a blush and cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm sure that Zeref was the one who taught you because he's a friend of mine." The others looked at him in disbelief and a bit of worry. "Well sort of. Sometimes. When he's not massacring hundreds of innocent people and/or bawling his eyes out at least."

All five of his companions had bemused looks upon their faces and Naruto decided it was time to, once again, change the subject. "So, what are you gonna do now?" He was mostly directing this question at Mavis and Zeira, but figured he should include the treasure hunters as well.

Mavis responded for all of them. "We're going to run the guild of course!"

The matter-of-fact way in which she answered threw him for a loop.

"Huh?" Eloquent as always.

"Fairy Tail!" Mavis answered, yet again in that tone that said she expected him to already know this.

"Fairy Tale? What's that?" Naruto queried. He was still completely lost.

"No, no, no, Fairy _Tail_." She corrected him as if speaking to someone who wasn't exactly all there in the head, which she very well could have been.

"Okay, Fairy _Tail_." he repeated, emphasizing the last word for...whatever reason. "I still don't know what that is."

Mavis shot him a long-suffering look. "I've already told you, it's our guild."

"Since when do we have a guild?" he questioned, honestly curious. Had he forgotten something that important? Where was his guild mark? Was it somewhere under his clothing? He hoped it was on his ass. That would be _hilarious_.

"Since next week when the paperwork gets back from the council!" Oh. That...still didn't make any sense to him, but before he could respond, Zeira, growing tired of the back and forth, cut in.

"What Mavis means is that after we ran Blue Skull out of town, she decided that Magnolia needed a new guild to step in and protect the town so that something like this," she gestured around her at the destruction, "would never happen again. So we created a guild; Fairy Tail. Mavis is going to be the first Master. The building that you found us in is going to be the guild hall. They just got done fixing it up earlier this morning."

Naruto finally understood, and he was actually impressed. It wasn't a bad idea. A guild would not only protect Magnolia, but it would protect Mavis and Zeira as well. Mages would flock to a new guild and once they joined, they would do their best to protect their fellow guild-mates and master. This was perfect. The girls were heroes here. The townspeople would treat them well and help with whatever problems they had that were too small to get him involved. They would be stationary, so he would still know where to find them if the need should arise. Yes, he decided. This would work out just fine.

"So where do I sign up?"

Mavis beamed.

A/N: I'm back. Sorry this took so long. There's a longer note on my profile if you care. Just wanted to say thanks for all the support. Hopefully I'll have another chapter for you soon.


	4. Chapter 4

Naruto stared blankly down at his blood-soaked hands, watching idly as the crimson fluid dripped languidly to the floor. Around him, dozens of bodies lay dead, splayed in awkward angles around the room. Dozens more were still breathing, though most struggled to do so. Without aid, the last would be dead in a few hours at most. It was easy to tell with a glance that these men had not died painlessly. If the looks of horror and pure agony on the faces of the dead were not enough, the torn, burned, and eviscerated bodies, some of which lacked aforementioned head, made it extremely obvious.

Naruto kept his face expressionless as he turned to make his way to the door. On his way, he stepped callously on a man's kidney that had found it's way to the floor via the gaping hole in his abdomen. The man let out a wailing scream as his body stiffened and shook from the horrendous pain. His scream was cut short and he let out one last rasping breath as his heart finally expired and his eyes glassed over.

The bloodied shinobi payed him no mind and continued to the door of the guild. Stepping outside, he absently noted hot sun shining down on the clearing that the guild hall resided in. Such a bright and beautiful day was a complete contrast to the massacre inside the building.

Naruto kept walking away from the guild until he was around 50 meters away. Turning, he regarded the site of all the bloodshed one last time before inhaling sharply through his nose.

_'Katon: Gouka Mekkyaku no Jutsu'_

Bringing a slightly closed fist in front of his mouth, the blond exhaled, releasing a thin stream of white-hot flames from the end of his hand. The flames continued in a compact beam for about 20 meters before they suddenly exploded outwards to encompass the entire width of the clearing, more than 100 meters at it's widest point. The wooden guild hall was quickly set ablaze and the quiet of the forest was shattered by the agonized screams of the still-living guild members trapped inside.

Within the guild cum crematorium, hair and clothes were incinerated, flesh melted from bone, and blood boiled in veins. This continued for nearly two minutes before the last of the screams finally died out.

Naruto, still yet to show any trace of emotion on his face, observed the burning and collapsing wreckage of the guild in silence. When he was unable to hear the anguished cries of his victims, he sighed and turned his head to see the rest of the damage he'd wrought. For as far back as he could see into the woods from this vantage point, flora and fauna were being turned to ash before his eyes.

Deciding to stop the forest fire before it got too out of control, a _Kage Bunshin_ appeared next to him with a thought. Stepping onto the clone's already interlocked hands, he bent his leg and pushed as the clone heaved it's creator up into the sky. From this new position, Naruto could see that the flames continued for nearly a kilometer past the razed guild hall. Once more, he inhaled deeply and proceeded to look straight down at the still smoldering guild.

_'Suiton: Dai Bakusui Shouha'_

Taking a moment to build and shape the chakra within him, he released an almighty torrent of water from his gut. Millions of gallons of water poured down with crushing force flattening everything it came into contact with. The massive deluge continued to pour forth from Naruto's mouth for half a minute until the water line had reached above the highest of the burning trees. Employing the control gained from centuries of practice, the blond shaped the mass of water into an enormous sphere that was easily visible from the closest town, nearly 20 kilometers away.

Landing atop and looking down into his makeshift aquarium, Naruto was just able to make out the last few pieces of the guild. Several charred planks, a splintered table, and what looked to be half of a human skull.

It wasn't enough. There could be nothing left.

His bandaged right arm glowed golden as a small black sphere appeared in the palm of his hand. He admired the potent ball of chakra for a moment before throwing it straight down into the bubble of water beneath him and quickly jumping away. Reaching what he determined to be a safe distance from the massive bubble, he turned around to watch what happened next.

_'Chou Mini Bijuudama'_

The black sphere of ultra-compressed chakra reached two thirds of the way down the bubble before it suddenly expanded to six times its previous size and then just as quickly collapsed into a pinprick of blackness. The water sphere rippled for a moment and then lost cohesion and imploded, erupting upward leaving naught but a crater where acres of forest had flourished only minutes before.

Deciding that his task was finally complete, Naruto raised his right leg and brought the attached foot crashing back down to the ground. _'Doton: Daichidoukaku'. _Almost immediately the massive crater began to invert itself, as if a giant stood beneath it forcing it flat once more. Once the crater had realigned with the surrounding area, the shinobi readied his final jutsu.

_'Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Koutan'_

With a pulse of his chakra, the ground around him exploded and gave way to hundreds of trees being birthed from the earth. They grew at a frantic pace, coiling and twisting together like writhing serpents, only stopping when they grew even in height with the surrounding forest.

Naruto observed his work, noting that the once barren clearing was now indistinguishable from the woodland around it. Nodding sharply to himself, he spun on his heel and took three steps before disappearing in a golden flash.

The Grey Sparrow guild was no more.

_1 Hour Before Grey Sparrow's Destruction_

Naruto trudged through the streets of Dawn City on the West coast of Fiore, only notable for being a rest stop for those travelling from Gallowstown to Matza Valley. However, the blond was not here for a rest break; he had no intention of making it to Matza Valley. No, his quarry was much closer to Dawn City, he just wasn't sure where. Naruto was sure that her job had been in this city; Mavis had told him that much. And he was certain that the only guild around for miles was one called Grey Sparrow; this he had learned from one quivering shopkeep before the man collapsed in a dead faint from the immense pressure of the shinobi's bloodlust.

So it was that the only thing left to do now was find out where exactly the guild was located as none of the citizens in town seemed willing to divulge this information. It was hard to tell what scared the townsfolk more; the ruthless guild that took advantage of their lack of security, or the strange blond who looked ready to slaughter the next person to glance his way. Luckily for the terrified civilians, they're choice was taken away from them before anything too terrible could happen.

Noticing a hush fall over the already subdued crowd in the marketplace, Naruto spared a glance at where the silence spread from and _almost _smiled when he finally found what he was looking for. Standing at the opposite end of marketplace were three men ranging from their early twenties to mid thirties. What set them apart from the rest of the crowd were the matching tattoos that adorned their bodies in easily visible positions: one on a man's cheek, another on a muscled right forearm, and the last on a shirtless man's chest. A bird with sharp angular wings flared up as if in mid-flight and a cruel, sharpened beak looking overly large compared to the small size of it's head. The mark of a Grey Sparrow mage.

A surge of anger erupted within Naruto and his bloodlust spiked accordingly, becoming a nearly tangible presence around him. Those closest to him saw their death play out in front of them like a movie, and blacked out from the sheer, unrivalled, terror they felt. It was unlike anything they had or would ever encounter in their lives. The Grey Sparrow mages stiffened at the terrible feeling but were far enough from it's source that they pushed it away and glared at the imposing presence in an attempt to hide their terrified shaking.

The marketplace cleared abruptly, with those able to withstand the pressure being forced upon them grabbing those less fortunate and hurrying back to their homes to avoid whatever was about to happen. Naruto, uncaring of the fleeing townspeople, strode determinedly toward the trio of guild members, stopping less than a foot from the tallest one's face.

The shinobi's chosen target was the man with the forearm tattoo. He was taller than his compatriots by a good six inches and stood above the six-foot tall Naruto by about three inches. He was well muscled and had scars running up and down his arm, one split his guild mark in half down the middle, making it look as if the sparrow's wings had been severed where they sprouted from it's back. His head was shaved but he wore a full goatee of coarse black hair. He had one large scar running jaggedly from his left eyebrow to mid-way atop his head. Overall he struck an very imposing figure; if you were anyone but Naruto. The blond simply stared coolly into the eyes of the taller man, ignoring his comrades as they were insignificant to his current plans.

Given a moment to adjust to the cloaked man's presence, the bald man collected himself and sneered at the impetuous blond who had the gall to invade his personal space.

"Fuck do you want kid?" he asked the shinobi as his two friends moved to either side of the cloaked man.

Naruto just continued to stare at the taller man, refusing to even acknowledge the other two's movements. Finally he opted to speak. "You're in Grey Sparrow." It wasn't a question so much as a declaration. When he received a scoff followed by an affirming nod, Naruto continued, "You are going to show me to your guild."

The Sparrows chuckled at the blond kid's idiocy. He thought he could just come up and tell them what to do? Didn't he know who he was talking to? Grey Sparrow was the most powerful guild West of Crocus. Nobody could touch them and this kid thought he could just come up and _make demands of_ _them_? Ha! As if.

The bald-headed man leaned down until he was nose to nose with Naruto before he spoke. "And what makes you think that we're gonna take you anywhere punk?"

Blinking at the man's wretched breath, Naruto amended his earlier statement. "You misunderstand. _You _will be taking me to your guild. Your friends won't be going anywhere."

"And why is it that you think my buddies won't be going anywhere, huh?" the tall man asked, taking a step back to once more demonstrate the height difference between the two.

For the first time that day, Naruto's expression changed; from that of blankness to a soulless smile that seemed entirely out of place on his face. His lips quirked up at the corners but no other part of his face so much as twitched as he stared down the mage in front of him. They were both silent for a tense fifteen seconds until the blond finally spoke.

"Dead men don't move very far."

The deadpan delivery threw off the Sparrows for a few moments and that was all it took. In a flash of movement, Naruto shot his arms out to either side, a kunai gripped in each hand. They quickly found purchase in the smaller Sparrows' throats, where they stayed for an instant until they were forcibly torn from the sides of their necks in a shower of arterial blood. The knives continued on their journey only to once more find a home; this time slotted neatly in the shoulder joints of the bald Sparrow.

For a moment all was still, save for the blood running in waves from the throats of the two smaller mages and the incredulous looks on all three of their faces. The moment was broken when the throatless mages toppled backwards and hit the ground, dead. The crumpling bodies set off the bald mage and he let loose an anguished and horrified scream, gaping dumbly at his now useless arms dangling limply at his sides.

Naruto waited for the man's scream to taper off into stunned silence before proceeding to grab his kunai, apply a layer of ultra sharp wind chakra, and rip downwards, cleanly severing the mages scarred arms from the rest of his body. To prevent him from bleeding to death, Naruto quickly built up a mass of fire natured chakra in his palms, not at all dissimilar to the first step of a _Chidori_, and cupped them over the disfigured area, cauterizing the wounds in an instant. Seeing the man's eyes beginning to roll into his head, Naruto slapped him sharply across the face in an effort to prevent him from going into shock. It seemed to work, as the man's eyes regained a bit of clarity and he stared, horrified at ninja.

Seeing coherence return to the man, Naruto reminded him of why he was here in the first place. "So," he stated calmly - as if he hadn't just killed two men and permanently disfigured another - "You were going to point me in the direction of your guild, were you not?" He paused and considered his words. "Well I suppose you won't be doing much pointing in the near future, will you?" he emphasized this with a shrug and a slight gesture down at the Sparrow's missing appendages. He made a dismissive noise and focused back on the mage. "Just nod your head in the direction your guild is in and you'll be free to go. If you move quick enough, you might be able to get some fully working prosthetics attached before your nerves atrophy and become useless." There was, of course, no chance of that actually happening. Naruto had seen to that when he cauterized the wounds and burnt away any connective tissue that could be used as a base for the prosthetic to attach to. But dead men didn't need to know such things.

The mage who had by this point, fallen to his knees from the pain, stared fearfully at Naruto for a moment and then finally opened his mouth to speak. "S-s-southeast. T-towards the m-mountain." He tilted his head in the general direction he spoke of, and in the distance it was indeed possible to see the peak of a snowcapped mountain peeking above the trees. "Fif-fifteen k-kilometers that-way." he continued, unprompted.

Naruto gazed down at the stuttering mess of a man, trying to ascertain the truth of his claims. Seeing the defeated and terrified look in the man's eyes, he decided that the Sparrow had no reason to lie at this point and so took him at his word. Without another sound, he tightened the grip on the kunai in his right hand and plunged it into the man's forehead. The skewered man's expression registered a moment of shock before he went slack and, with the removal of the knife from his head, dropped to the ground in a heap.

With a thought, three _Kage Bunshin_ appeared around him. He turned to the nearest one and ordered, "Clean this up. No sense traumatizing these people more than we already have." He gestured at the rows of building with dozens of pairs of eyes peeking out from behind closed curtains. Giving their creator a nod, the three clones set to work. Two collected the bodies to bring them outside of town before burning them to ash, while the third used a small _Suiton_ jutsu to wash away the puddles of blood pooled along the cobbled street.

Meanwhile, the real Naruto set off at a blistering pace in the direction of the distant mountain, and presumably the Grey Sparrow guild.

Ten minutes of sprinting later, Naruto spied a tall wooden building through a gap in the trees. Breaking into the clearing he glanced up and saw the emblem seated atop the structure; the same one tattooed on the men he'd just killed. Good. He'd found it.

Slowing to a walk, the blond made his way to the large double doors adorning the front of the guild. Without pause, Naruto pushed the oaken doors open and stepped into the guild, pausing just inside the doorway. In an instant, the noises in the hall stopped as the guild members sneered at the boyish newcomer.

"Da fuck d'ya want kid?" A mage from the table closest to the door asked. "You can't jus' come bargin' in here like you own the place."

A brunette woman a few tables over called over to the man who spoke. "Oh don't be like that Blaine. Cuties like him are always welcome here. Us girls get tired of starin' at your ugly mug day in and day out ya know." A few other woman seated around her table tittered in amusement.

Naruto ignored the byplay and simply looked around at the packed guild hall. Large round tables dotted the open room; all of them filled with rough looking men and women who, prior to his arrival, seemed to be imbibing and laughing at each other's stories. Though he couldn't see all of them, he knew they all bore the mark of the Grey Sparrow on their bodies. And even if they didn't, they were guilty by association. That was enough for him.

"Which one of you killed her?"

The mages around him gave him bemused looks. Someone in the back corner of the room answered him.

"We kill a lot of people around here buddy. You're gonna hafta be more specific." He chuckled in what he thought was a menacing tone and a few others snickered as well.

Naruto didn't seem put off by the response. He simply turned his sharp gaze to the man who spoke and elaborated. "Last night. The Fairy Tail mage doing the job in Dawn City." That got a response.

A short stocky man sitting at a table placed dead center in the room guffawed loudly. "Bwahahaha! She was a fun one! Squealed like a stuck pig she did. Hootin' an' hollerin' an' cryin' out 'D-d-don't k-kill me! Please! I'll do anything!' Gahaha-ack!" Before the man could blink, he found the handle of a blade jutting from his throat. His eyes widened and he flailed his arms around wildly, gurgling and drooling blood from his mouth. He turned to look back at blond to see him toss an exact replica of the knife in his neck up into the air. There was a flash of yellow and he was staring at the blonds cloak, inches from his face. Another disorientating flash and the skewered man and the ninja were standing by the doors, exactly where the cloaked man was not moments before.

Naruto caught the twirling kunai out of the air and spun the bleeding mage around to face the rest of his guild. His fellow mages were in an uproar, rising from their seats and preparing to attack the intruder holding their friend hostage. Before they could begin their assault though, a rough voice called out from behind them.

"Enough! Shut up will you?" An older man, probably around 60, stepped forward from behind the bar in the back of the hall. His shoulder-length grey hair hung limp from his thinning scalp and his bushy mustache twitched agitatedly as he stared at his guild members. His black, beady eyes shifted to the shinobi and he gave the man a congenial smile, raising his hands placatingly. "Now now, no need to be hasty here. I can see that you're angry, but surely there's no need to resort to violence. Daici there was only doing his job when he killed that girl. You can understand that can't you? Everyone's got to make a living somehow. It's hardly _our fault_ that someone somewhere wanted her dead now is it?"

The man's blase dismissal of his friend's murder only served to stoke the cold raging burning in Naruto's gut, but he couldn't act on it just yet. He needed answers first. "You say someone put in a request to kill her. Who? Why her specifically?"

The grey-haired man, who Naruto assumed was the master, just chuckled. "No no no, not _her_ specifically. The request was just for one dead Fairy Tail mage to be left in a high traffic area where people would see them. The little girlie just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As for who placed the request, we dunno. Some guy came in last week wearing a cloak, sorta like yours, but with a hood up. Couldn't see his face. Just walked right in, tacked the request to the board over there, and turned and left. Didn't say a word and was only here for fifteen seconds tops. We weren't gonna take it at first cause a' how suspicious it was. Thought it coulda been a trap ya know? Council tryin' to catch us up to know good an' all that. But the pay was too good to pass up. Three million jewels for one dead mage. Didn't even have to be a strong one, just anyone dumb enough to go walkin' around with a Fairy Tail stamp in plain sight."

Naruto sighed at this revelation. "So you're all useless then."

The master looked affronted. "Hey now, you listen here boy; I've been kind so far, letting you waltz on in here and attack my men without provocation. I've even given you answers to the questions you had about your little friend's death, so keep that slippery little tongue to yourself. Besides, Daichi there looks dead on his feet and if you think one little meat shield is gonna keep us from killin' you, well, you're _dead_ wrong." By the end of his speech, the master's frown had morphed into a sinister grin. "Now boys and girls, go on and show our friend here why you don't fuck with Grey Sp-"

"Wait!" Naruto called, stopping the mages from charging for the moment.

"What is it boy? You want to beg for your life? We're not gonna let you go now that you gone and killed one of our own. We don't take kindly to that."

Naruto shook his head at the master. "No, it's not that. I just wanted to check something first." He took the knife not embedded in Daichi's neck and plunged it into the man's abdomen, drew it across his body and then pulled it out in one fluid motion, simultaneously pulling the other kunai free as well. Daichi, along with his guild mates, stared down at his intestines slipping out of the gash in his gut and pooling down at his feet for a few seconds. Suddenly, he let loose a gurgling, terrified scream, took a stumbling step forward, slipped on his extraneous entrails, and fell to the floor where he remained, unmoving. "Huh." Naruto shrugged, placing the bloody kunai back beneath his cloak. "I just don't see it." he admitted, shaking his head.

The master gaped at the young man who just butchered one of his mages. "W-what? Just don't see what?" he asked, almost dreading the answer. All of a sudden he wasn't so sure he wanted to fuck with this guy anymore.

Naruto nudged the pile of cooling flesh with his foot, staring at the master with an almost disappointed look on his face. "Daichi here said it was funny that my friend 'squealed like a stuck pig' when he killed her. I just wanted to see what I was missing out on. But I didn't see what was so funny about it." He turned his gaze on the rest of the guild. "Did you all think it was funny?" The curious look on his face almost looked genuine were it not for the gleam in his eyes that spoke of contained fury. Without waiting for an answer, he suddenly shifted subjects. "I don't really enjoy killing. To be honest, I hate it. In fact, I usually go out of my way to avoid killing my enemies, but the last few hours have put me in a very, _very_ bad mood. So today, I'm going to make an exception. Today, I'm going to kill all of you. Your deaths are going to be extremely painful. I'm not killing you to send a message though. No, quite the opposite actually. No one is going to know that you've died, in fact, no one will know that you were ever alive to begin with. I'm going to erase every shred of evidence that Grey Sparrow ever existed. And then, when I'm done here, I'm going to do the same to every other guild who received a job request similar to yours. I'm telling you this because, before you die, I want you all to realise just how big of a mistake you made by fucking with Fairy Tail; and, more importantly, by thinking you could attack me and mine without _severe _repercussions."

With that, he attacked.

He twisted to his left to face the table closest to him and sent out a scything blade of wind on a slight angle toward the five mages standing there. The movements were so quick and unexpected that the unfortunate men could do nothing but scream as their bodies were neatly bisected at varying points along their torsos. The sight of their comrades being killed snapped the rest of the guild out of their stupor and they began to fight back.

The long range fighters went first, sending a plethora of spells at the stationary sage. Naruto sidestepped an earthen spire that erupted through the floorboards, ducked under a slow-moving fireball, and batted away a bolt of lightning with a wind encased fist, sending it streaking into an unfortunate mage to his right. He gathered lightning chakra in his right hand and pointed it at the table with the earth mage.

'_Chidori Senbon.'_

Hundreds of ultra-thin needles shot out at the clumped up mages, digging into and then through the pliable flesh, leaving the men to fall in twitching, bleeding heaps on the floor as thousands of volts intermittently discharged in their systems. Ignoring their cries of pain, he focused back on the fight as the more physically inclined mages attacked en masse.

When the first mage got to be about ten feet away, she threw a powerful punch at Naruto. He watched with a small bit of amusement as her arm stretched forward bonelessly. The blond simply caught the enclosing fist with his left hand and gave a sharp tug, yanking the woman from her feet and sending her careening, wide-eyed toward Naruto. The sage brought his right hand into a fist and delivered a crushing blow to the woman's jaw, shattering it and sending teeth and blood flying through the air. Before she could follow them, Naruto gave another pull on her still-caught fist, and when she was within range, sent a roundhouse kick into her gut, releasing her fist as she was sent to crash against the guild's wall, splintering the wood upon impact.

Not given room to recover, he backstepped as two sword-wielding men lunged from either side of him. When they passed in front of him, he brought two swirling _Rasengan_s slamming down into their backs, snapping their spines and grinding innards to mush. Another fireball, followed by a small speedy mage came next, and Naruto shot out a large globe of water, easily extinguishing the fireball and clipping the wide-eyed speedster behind it on his arm.

He backstepped once more as three mages charged him, aiming high, middle, and low in an effort to catch him off guard. Their hopes were dashed when he simply jumped over all three of them and sent a powerful burst of air from his feet, flattening the three mages to the floor and subsequently propelling himself to the ceiling where he hung upside down. Before the long range attackers could make their move, Naruto sent a searing ball of flames into their midst to scatter them, setting a few of the slower ones alight in the process.

Removing a few kunai from beneath his cloak, he tossed them at random into the crowd. When none of them struck any of the mages, a few of the men jeered at the blond for his apparent inability. Within moments, those who were laughing at the man's poor aim suddenly found themselves short a few limbs as Naruto _Hiraishin_-ed to each kunai, infused it with wind chakra, and then swung indiscriminately at anything in his way. One final _Hiraishin_ brought him out of the group of dismembered mages and he took a moment to observe his work so far.

He'd incapacitated or outright eliminated about half of the guild's mages so far and many of the remaining fighters looked hesitant to attack him. That was fine, he'd go to them. A single _Kage Bunshin_ appeared next to him and immediately tackled the first mage he came across in a bear hug. A beat. The clone exploded in a ball of flames. The _Bunshin Daibakuha _turned its immediate victim into a fine mist and tore limbs from others who stood too close to the blast. Naruto came bursting through the smoke left by the attack and thrust a _Rasengan_ into one man's face, then spun on his heel, hardened his skin with a quick _Doton: Domu_, and sent a fist _through_ the next mage's ribcage. He used the man's body as a makeshift shield to guard himself from a salvo of magic gunshots, and then dropped it when they paused to reload. He released a pulse of chakra that had tree roots bursting from the floor to strangle the panicking gunmen, and turned to deal with his final few opponents.

They seemed to be gathering together to make one large last-ditch attempt at overpowering him. They were either extremely brave or extremely ignorant if they thought that only a dozen mediocre mages pooling their power together was going to be enough to stop him.

He thrust his arm forward and a small sharp spear of wood launched from his palm. It burrowed into one man's stomach and grew rapidly in several directions, erupting from a multitude of place throughout his body in a shower of gore. The rest of the mages hurriedly backpedaled to buy some time. When they reached a distance they considered safe from most of his ranged attacks, they quickly gathered their magic and released their spells as one. The bastardized Unison Raid barreled toward Naruto as a cylinder of pure magic, larger in diameter than he was tall. Not even blinking at the extremely destructive wave of energy headed straight for him, Naruto called up two differently natured _Rasenshuriken_, one in each hand. Cocking his arm back, he hurled the _Yoton: Rasenshuriken_ at the oncoming beam of energy. It carved its way, without issue, through the mass of light, diffusing the beam into a plethora of smaller blasts that shot off in all directions. When it reached the mages, who had paused to gawk at the mighty spell they had unintentionally produced, it detonated in a deluge of molten lava, covering the group of mages who immediately began howling in agony.

Their screams only went on for a few seconds before Naruto threw the _Suiton: Rasenshuriken_ in his left hand. When it reached them, the razor sharp water sliced through the thick coat of lava on the melting mages, followed by the mages themselves, and then the whole thing imploded, pumping hundreds of gallons of water into the area. The cool temperature of the water set the lava to hardening almost immediately, sealing the dismembered and dying mages into tombs of volcanic stone.

Naruto was about to turn and head outside to finish things but he noticed something off. He couldn't seem to remember killing the guild master who he'd been speaking to didn't surprise the ninja one bit. The slimy old man hardly seemed the type to stick around and fight for his comrades when the chips were down. He couldn't have gotten far though, so Naruto glanced around at the wrecked guild hall searching for any clue of his whereabouts. Spotting the only viable hiding place left in the building, the immortal man turned and strolled leisurely to the half collapsed bar against the back wall.

Indeed, when he arrived at the counter and poked his head over, he was greeted with the sight of the wrinkled man curled in the fetal position and breathing as silently as possible. Hearing the floor creak, the master looked up into the bloodied face of the man who'd just slaughtered his entire guild. With a terrified shout, the man morphed himself into a formless cloud of smoke and rushed past the blond and toward the doors to the guild in a desperate bid for freedom. He was summarily denied when a compressed ball of wind shot through his form and decompressed into omnidirectional gale force winds that buffeted said form and forced the smoke to every corner of the guild hall.

The expanding winds suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by what could only be a miniature black hole. It sucked up his dispersed form into a tightly packed ball, and brought with it dismembered limbs and a few of the closest corpses. In an effort to avoid being buried under his dead subordinates, the master reassembled himself and pushed with all his might to escape the vacuum behind him. After an almighty struggle that exhausted most of his strength, he managed to free himself and tumble clumsily into the waiting embrace of Naruto's right hand.

The ninja seemed quite unfazed by the miniature tornado that was only now beginning to taper off. Aside from the blood that soaked his entire body from head to toe, the blond seemed as though he hadn't done anything even remotely strenuous since he woke up that morning.

Naruto hoisted the shorter guild master up by his neck until they were eye level. "Your entire guild just died fighting while you cowered behind the bar doing absolutely nothing. They may have been a bunch of child-murdering assholes, but at least they had the guts to go down fighting instead of turning into a bunch of sniveling pussies and giving up like you did."

In response, the guild master spat at the blond's bloody face. Naruto stared unflinchingly at the old man for a few moments and then shrugged. He spat back at the master, his loogie landing square in the middle of the man's forehead. But unlike the master's spit, Naruto's began to sizzle and pop with a high-pitched hissing sound. Naruto's spit, infused with the acidic chakra of what was once the Rokubi, slowly began eating it's way through the skin and bone of the man's wrinkled forehead. With the blond's hand crushing his windpipe, the master could only flail and kick helplessly at the imposing ninja, screaming mutely as the acid worked it's way into his brain.

When the master finally went limp, Naruto dropped his body to the floor and once more looked at the destruction he'd wrought. He let out a weary sigh and shook his head. This was a mistake. He'd thought that killing these people would soothe his pain in some way; give him a sense of justice that the ones who'd killed her couldn't kill anyone again. But all it did was leave him empty. He'd let his rage get the better of him and in the end he was no better than these people. And to make it worse, there were about a dozen other things he should be doing right now. He should be home, at Fairy Tail with his family. They needed him right now. Needed someone to guide them through this dark time. Someone with experience in dealing with death. Then again, if _this_ was his idea of a healthy reaction to a loved one dying, perhaps they were better off without him there.

No. _No._ That didn't matter. He should be there for them. For her. There would be time investigate this later. Time to figure out how Fairy Tail had gathered enough attention within just two months of being founded to warrant someone putting out hits on their mages. But for now, his family was his first priority. This whole thing was a mess. It needed to be cleaned up. He looked down at the blood staining his hands, and then turned to leave the building.

_24 Hours Before Grey Sparrow's Destruction_

For the first time in centuries, Naruto could honestly say that he was content with life. Not since the ninja villages had dissolved some 800 years ago had he found a place that he could truly call home. Until now that is. Fairy Tail was quickly becoming the greatest thing to happen to him in ages. The six of them had already recruited a few new mages that had wandered through after hearing about the defeat of Blue Skull. Their curiosity had brought them straight to Fairy Tail's doorstep where Mavis' bubbling personality and innate friendliness quickly reeled them in. More and more jobs were coming in and each request was being completed in record time with glowing praise coming from their employers.

At the behest of Mavis - and the constant ribbing from Yury and Warrod - Naruto himself had even taken a few jobs. It had been a long time since he'd performed a task given to him by someone that wasn't himself. It was quite nostalgic for the ancient man. But as much fun as nostalgia could be, he had things of his own that he had to keep up on, and so didn't have time to take more than a mission or two each month.

Now that he thought about it, it was getting around that time when he had to head back to the guild to check up on things and make sure the rowdy group of mages hadn't burned the place to the ground.

Hmm. Now how to get back? He could take a nice leisurely walk to enjoy the sights and arrive back in Magnolia in about three days, or he could _Hiraishin_ to any of the dozen or so markers he had in and around the guild and arrive in three seconds.

Before he could contemplate any further, he felt an insistent tugging in the back of his head from one of the _Hiraishin_ kunai that he had left at the guild in case of emergency. He patted himself down to make sure he had everything he needed with him and flashed away the next instant.

He arrived in a hallway that he knew to be off the main floor of the guild and knew instantly that something was wrong. For one, the boisterous laughter and cheerful shouting of the Fairy Tail mages was noticeably absent. The second, and most telling thing, was the three ashen-faced men hovering in front of Mavis' office. Yury's head rested against the door and his hand was poised as if he'd been knocking, quite insistently if the redness of his knuckles was any indication. Warrod sat hunched over on the floor looking utterly defeated and hopeless. Precht was leaning coolly against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and brow furrowed, but his lone eye stared forlornly at the ground and he seemed to be lost in thought.

Naruto assumed that Precht was the one to signal him as he was the only one who looked up at the blond's arrival. "What's going on Precht? Why did you call me?" Naruto gave the one-eyed man a curious look. The three men's destroyed expressions were not setting his mind at ease in the least.

"She's gone and locked herself in there after we got the call from the Rune Knights. She won't let any of us in and I'm worried she'll do something stupid if we don't get in there. She's put up a load of runes in front of the door and windows that we don't know how to bypass. You're the only one I know who can, and we figured you'd be the best choice to calm her down right now."

Precht's explanation only made Naruto more anxious. Giving the man a nod, Naruto felt for the marker that he knew would be in the office. Finding it, he disappeared in a flash of gold.

The office was in complete and utter disarray. The desk had been overturned, and the papers and books on top of it scattered around the room. The bookshelf was snapped in two and it's contents joined everything else strewn across the floor. Glass trinkets were shattered and a flag bearing the crest of Fairy Tail lay half torn and dangling from it's spot on the wall. Amongst all of the destruction, a miniscule blonde girl sat curled in a corner. Deep, wracking sobs came without pause and her hands fisted tightly in her hair as if she were trying to tear it out.

It was to this scene that Naruto arrived, standing toe to toe with the grieving girl. He immediately crouched down and engulfed her in a comforting hug. She responded without hesitation, clinging desperately to the immortal. He lifted Mavis up and shifted around a bit until his back was leaned against the wall and then set her down in his lap and began stroking her hair. She kept her grip on his cloak like a vice until he managed to calm her down enough to speak coherently.

"Tell me what's wrong Mavis. I can't do anything to help you if you don't tell me the problem. Tell me what it is and I'll go fix it, I swear." he whispered into her hair as her face was still buried in his chest.

She broke into another round of sobs that lasted a few more minutes. Finally she mumbled something incomprehensible into Naruto's chest.

"Say that again Mavis. I can't hear you." He pulled her head from it's spot beneath his cloak and lifted her chin until he could look into her face. What he saw though, terrified him. Her eyes looked dead. She looked as if she had never been happy and would never be happy again. It was the look of someone who had lost all hope and faith in the world.

Mavis steeled herself and stared into her best friend's face.

"The Rune Knights called on the communication lacrima. Zeira is dead."

Naruto broke.

**Manga Spoilers****Below**

A/N: Tried something a bit different this chapter. Also this is my first attempt at writing a relatively drawn out fight scene (even if it is completely one-sided). Catching up with the manga sort of killed my buzz, what with all the new history of Mavis/Zeref. But then I realized that this is my story and I can do whatever the fuck I want with it. So expect AU (as if it wasn't already). I'm gonna skip past the Trade War; it'll receive a passing mention but that's it. Next chapter will pick up with Makarov's birth and the complications that arise from that, and from there Mavis' story will become very AU. I'll try to keep this pace writing for awhile, but no promises. Thanks for all of the feedback! It's been awesome and I really appreciate it!


	5. Chapter 5

War followed soon after Zeira's death. The Second Trade War brought death and destruction to Fiore. Soldiers were fighting and dying every day, and every day the invading forces made their way further and further into Fiore. It took two years of the pointless back and forth before the council finally caved and begged mages to fight on their behalf. Mages jumped at the chance. The war had drained most people's resources and the average person couldn't afford to hire mages with the same frequency as before.

Many mages sought to end the fighting and bring back jobs to their guilds. Others were simply excited to fight.

In the two years of magical warfare that followed, Mavis, for all her youth and inexperience, proved to be a tactical genius, leading the mages of Fiore to astounding victories against all odds. Not for the first time, her eternally child-like face was caused a great many problems. Older and more experienced generals were loathe to listen to the advice of a tiny little girl, and it took a long string of horrible defeats before she was finally given a chance to prove herself.

But she was not the only one to make a name for herself. The three ex-treasure hunters spent the two years of war mastering their chosen magics to amazing extents. Warrod could turn charred and barren battlefields into lush forests with his Green Magic, Yury could then turn those forests into electrified deathtraps with his Lightning Magic, and Precht could waltz through the destruction left behind, cutting down anyone still standing with his Chain and Bullet Magics. The three of them working together made an amazingly effective team, easily as valuable as any number of platoons of Rune Knights that the council could send out to fight with them.

Naruto had actually made several different names for himself, creating false identities with liberal use of his Henge and assigning them one element each, he would arrive to battles that the enemy seemed sure to win and sweep through their ranks with devastating ease until nothing remained of the enemy camp. Nearly a millennia before this, Minato Namikaze had been hailed as one of the strongest beings on the planet for the ease with which he took down an entire platoon of close to 200 ninja. Now, his son was accomplishing the same feat, daily.

Quite frankly, it scared the council almost as much as it did their enemy. Suddenly, more than a dozen completely unknown men and women were crawling out of the woodwork and displaying knowledge and skill in their element rare even among the Ten Wizard Saints. Where had these people been hiding? Who had trained them? Even their current number one, an absolute monster of a man by the name of Kartikeya Kumaran, faced at least token resistance when he was sent into the battlefield. But from reports of these strangers' abilities, even Kumaran, whose control over fire was so strong he could create autonomous beings made solely of the element, would be hard pressed to keep up.

Another two years passed once mages were brought in to fight for their country. In that time, Yury had met a beautiful battlefield medic by the name of Rita and they fast fell in love. Mavis, Yury, Precht, and Warrod had all cemented their positions as some of the most powerful mages in Fiore and Naruto's personas would become the basis for boogeymen the world over for generations to come.

Yury and Rita wed in a lovely ceremony, with all of his friends in attendance. And to add to the merriment, it seemed that the fighting would finally be over. Only a day after their wedding, the Second Trade War had been officially ended. It was unclear why the war ended then, as no side was any closer to accomplishing their goals than they had been four years ago. When asked who won, the council's chairman would respond, "There are no winners in war, only survivors." With that, the questioning stopped.

Time passed quickly after that. Naruto stayed in Magnolia for longer and longer periods of time. Mavis was in a state of mental purgatory; her kindly nature and peaceful ideals clashing with the fact that she had sent countless men and women to their deaths during the war. She was not the only one. Despite outward appearances, Naruto knew that Yury, Warrod, and to a lesser extent, Precht, were all struggling with the fact that they had killed men and women for the sole reason that they had been born in the wrong country.

But they were coping. Yury found solace in Rita, Warrod in creating life with his Green Magic, and Precht in searching through magical tomes in an effort to learn more about magic and, in his words, "Find something to stop the violence and bloodshed. Surely in the annals of time, there has been some form of magic capable of bringing peace." Naruto wanted to tell him that there wasn't. That he'd lived for close to 1,000 years and at no point in that period had there been true peace. But he didn't. Everyone needed something to take their minds off the war, and this was his vice.

Naruto found that he and Mavis took solace in each other. With Zeira's death, Mavis had lost her oldest and most beloved friend. Naruto had once again let others into his heart, only for them to be brutally torn away in the blink of an eye. Both were extremely hesitant to let the other out of their sight. Logically, Mavis knew that Naruto was virtually unkillable, but that did nothing to stem the worry that someone somewhere had devised a way to end him. Naruto, on the other hand, knew that Mavis was functionally immortal - though he wasn't sure if she knew that yet - but he knew not to what extent. Could she survive being crushed, stabbed, beheaded, like he could? Or was she simply immune to the passage of time? He did not want to find out.

Six more years passed and things had settled back into normalcy. Mavis was now a young woman, in mind if not in body, and it was getting harder for Naruto to forget that fact, especially when Mavis took to using her Illusion Magic to make herself older when she was alone with him. Her physical growth may have been stunted, but her mental growth was progressing without issue, as evidenced by the innuendo and flirtatious advances she laced into conversations with him.

It had taken nearly a year of sporadic "counseling" sessions for Mavis to get to the point where she could continue her public duties with the same attitude that she'd had before Zeira and the war. And even then, she had only become a proficient liar. She was still plagued with nightmares of death and destruction, and guilt weighed heavy in her mind. But she was getting better, bit by bit, and after six years of constant reassurance and companionship from not just Naruto but the whole of Fairy Tail, she had finally recovered a bit of that childlike wonder that she'd had before the war, before Zeira, before all of it.

And so it was, after she was back on her feet so to speak, Naruto felt it was time to resume his duties that he had neglected in favor of healing Mavis. Deciding it was high time he paid his contacts a visit, he had Hiraishined to a homey little hideaway in Midi and worked his way northeast to Pergrande Kingdom, making only the necessary stops along the way to reconnect with his information network. From there, he'd planned on zigzagging his way southwest through Iceberg, Stella, Bosco, Seven, and finally Fiore. Planned, but not to be.

His informant in Pergrande Kingdom had apparently taken Naruto's extended absence as an affront to his information gathering skills and so had a veritable boatload of information for him when he arrived.

"Zeref's been making moves over in Alakitasia." the hooded man informed him almost as soon as he'd been seated. "The uncultured idiots over there have no idea who the Hell Zeref is and so he's been moving around unaccosted for half a decade now. My guy over there tells me he's creating an army. It's still in it's infancy, but left unchecked, it could pose a serious problem in the future. He's got quite the silver tongue it seems. Been feedin' the sheep a load of shit about peace and harmony, and strength through unity." He snorted. "It'd be hilarious if it weren't actually working."

Naruto absorbed this information with a frown on his face. "If it gets him out of our hair, I don't see the problem. Let him play his little games over there. It'll keep him busy, and the less free time he has, the better off everyone will be. Unless he starts making those damn Etherious again, I'm gonna consider it a low priority." He paused and gave his informant a look. "He isn't making more Etherious is he?"

The hooded man shook his head rapidly. "Not that I've heard. Last I checked, he gave up after that bastard Mard Geer blew up that island south of Enca trying, and failing, to kill him. Still not sure what happened to him and his little friends though. How the fuck do a bunch of big-ass demons hide anyway?" After getting no response from Naruto, the man shrugged. "But getting back on track, you should give it a bit more of your attention. They may be a bunch of backward-ass hicks out west, but they've got some strong mages. I'd bet if you pooled the lot of them together, they'd be enough to give you a good kick in the teeth. And that seems to be exactly what Zeref's doing. He's already assimilated two smaller guilds into his base of operations, and there looks to be more on the way. Just give it a look when you get the chance, yeah? The last thing I need is a bunch of fanatics stormin' into Ishgar guns-a-blazin' and killing anyone who looks at them wrong. Bad for business ya know?" He gave Naruto a small grin.

The shinobi gave a tired sigh in return and nodded once. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'll check in on them soon. I've been meaning to have a chat with Mr. Tall Dark and Deadly for awhile now. Anything word on those assassination requests?"

The man shook his head. "Sorry, I've got nothing. Not a single whisper anywhere that I've got ears. I think it's time you just forget about it, to be honest. Four years without any moves on their part is a sign; whatever it is they wanted, they either got it when they killed your friend, or they got scared and gave up after Grey Sparrow went dark. Either way, there's nothing you can do about it now."

Naruto frowned in thought, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked back at his informant. "Even if they got what they want, I still want to know what it was. They weren't after Zeira; the request was for anyone from the guild. Hell, they could've been trying to eliminate the entire guild given the number of requests that went out to the different guilds. I never actually got the exact number; didn't need to. Sparrow's disappearance and a few roughed up mages from the more prominent guilds put them off trying anything after Zeira. But if their aim was to take out the entire guild, they won't give up that easily. Get your government contacts to search the records for guilds that were targeted in a similar fashion. It may be some guild out to eliminate the competition. If it is, they'll have left a trail. Now do you have anything else for me?"

"Ah yeah, I almost forgot the most important part. The main reason you can't just leave Zeref over in Alakitasia to do as he pleases; he's not in Alakitasia."

Naruto sat up a bit straighter and narrowed his eyes at his informant. "Explain."

"He set all the groundwork and gathered a few...advisors I guess you'd call them. They're the one's who've been doing most of the recruiting. Zeref just pops in every once and awhile to give a speech or show his face to the crowds and then he's gone again. My guy there says he's seen Zeref maybe four times in the last five years, and those were scripted public appearances. Apparently when he's not doing those he's 'travelling'."

"So he's in Ishgar now?" Naruto asked with no small bit of apprehension. The way his informant had been talking Naruto had been sure he'd be Zeref-free for the next few decades. It should figure he's not that lucky.

"Yep. Someone saw him not two days ago in Seven, heading south by the looks of it."

Aw Hell. South of Seven is Fiore. Fiore is where Magnolia is. Fairy Tail is in Magnolia. Mavis is in Fairy Tail. Zeref was after Mavis!

It was the kind of logical conclusion only a slightly insane, extremely protective person could come to. Nevertheless, Naruto fit both of those criteria to a tee. He shot up out of his chair and slammed a few jewels on the table.

"I've gotta go. Contact me if you hear anything else about the western continent. I'll let you know when I plan on taking a trip over there so you can inform your guy where to meet me. Thanks for the help. I'll be seeing you." With that, the blond spun and strode out the door of the dingy bar. He turned in to the nearest alleyway and disappeared in a flash.

His first Hiraishin brought him to a kunai stashed in a seldom used room in the basement of the guild. He searched the building for the presence of Mavis' kunai and when he couldn't find it, expanded his senses outwards. There! She was about ten miles away, in the forests that spanned between Magnolia and Akane Beach. Without a moment's pause, he jumped to her location.

The scene to which he arrived was something out of his worst nightmare. Mavis was entirely unharmed, but she sat shoulder to shoulder with Zeref, chattering happily like long-lost friends. His arrival went unnoticed by the two and they continued on with their conversation.

"...And he's going to be a father soon!" Mavis was saying, beaming at the dark-haired man next to her.

Zeref shook his head and chuckled. "That boy's going to be a father? That's a scary thought."

Mavis pouted on her friend's behalf. "He's hardly a boy any longer. It's been ten years since you've seen us! He's nearly 30! He's ancient!"

Naruto chose that moment to break into their conversation. "If Yury's ancient then what does that make him?" he asked pointing at Zeref. "Or me for that matter?"

Mavis gasped at the sound of his voice and spun around. "Naruto!" she shouted, jumping into his arms and allowing him to swing her around once before setting her back on her feet. "I thought you weren't going to be back for another week?" she asked, wide-eyed and curious.

Naruto tried to give her a smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. "Yeah, well, I heard some things that worried me so I wanted to come home and check on you and the others."

Mavis gave him an understanding nod, and then jumped a bit as she remembered where she was. "Oh Naruto!" She pointed toward the still seated mage. "This is Zeref! You said you knew each other, right?" She looked back and forth between the two men, waiting for them to commence a brotherly hug and reminisce about the 'good old days'. That's what old men did when they saw each other after a long time wasn't it?

"Zeref." Naruto gave the man a tight nod, keeping his face blank.

Zeref glanced over his shoulder at the only living person who could claim to be his senior. "Naruto. It's nice to see you again. How long has it been?" He queried, giving the shinobi a placid smile.

"Not long enough. Why are you here?"

"I was just wandering through when I happened across Mavis here. We were just catching up on things. I was terribly sorry to hear about Zeira's passing. Though she'd neglected to mention that you and she were friends." Naruto only gave the man a poisonous glare.

Mavis looked back and forth between the two, growing more and more confused. "Err, I thought you said that you two were friends?" The question was posed to both of them, but she was looking straight at Naruto when she asked it.

Zeref gave the girl a charming smile. "It would be quite strange if the only two immortals in the world weren't at the very least cordial with one another, would it not? And yes, at some times, we are in fact quite friendly with each other." Here he paused. "Though it seems that now is not one of those times." Here, he switched topics. "Though, speaking of immortals…" He trailed off and gave Naruto a significant look. The ninja acknowledged the unasked question with a slight nod. "And how did that come about?"

"That would be your doing." For the first time since the shinobi's arrival, Zeref's smile disappeared to be replaced by a look of confusion and slight worry.

"How so?" he asked curiously.

"Law." The one word brought a startled look to Zeref's face and caused Mavis to gasp. Suddenly their little byplay made a lot more sense. They were talking about her! She was immortal! But how?

"I'm...immortal? I...I can't die?" She looked to the both of them for confirmation, and when they both nodded, she let out a ragged breath and sunk to the ground. Naruto was by her side immediately as Zeref watched the two. "How is this possible? The doctors only said that I would stop aging physically. Not that I would live forever! What about physical injuries? Would they be able to kill me?" She stared beseechingly at Naruto, hoping he had the answers.

He gave an uncomfortable shrug. "I'm not sure. I suspected the immortality thing for awhile now, but I couldn't be sure as to the extent of it and I didn't want to go testing it's limits, you know? What if I was wrong and you got seriously hurt? I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Zeref spoke up once again. "She is truly immortal. Nothing can kill her. She will forever be a part of this earth, just as you and I are Naruto."

"How do you know that?" Naruto asked the Black Mage.

"She is immortal for the same reason I am." He answered. "She tampered with black magic beyond her comprehension and this is the result." He gestured airily at Mavis' small form curled against Naruto's chest.

Naruto shook his head. "If that were true, she would have been cursed like you as well. I've been with her for a large part of the last ten years. If it had begun to manifest itself, I would have noticed." he argued.

"It is called the Curse of Contradiction for a reason, is it not? The more one values human life, the more they kill."

"You're saying I don't think life is precious!?" Mavis yelled at the younger immortal.

Zeref shook his head at the highly offended girl. "Not necessarily. All I am saying is that up till now, you have not yet understood the value of human life. It is entirely understandable. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a large war quite recently was there not?" He received a nod from both of the others. "And you played quite a large role in that war if the stories are to be believed." Again, Mavis nodded. "And before that Zeira was killed, yes?" A nod. "You see, the last ten years of your life have been rife with death and destruction. You were not truly happy with life and so the curse saw no reason to manifest. But if, as you said, you are beginning to love and see the value of others, the curse will activate and you will begin to kill those around you indiscriminately."

Mavis gasped, and buried her face into Naruto's chest; then, remembering what she'd just been told, scrambled away from the both of them until she backed herself into a tree. Naruto gave her a pitying look and Zeref merely stared.

"You have no need to fear harming Naruto." Zeref told her. "If he could be harmed by the curse then he would have been dead many, many years ago. In fact, he is probably the only person with whom you would be safe spending time with, and that is including myself. I have no clue as to what would happen should our curses choose to activate when we are within each other's vicinities. It makes quite the interesting thought experiment," he mused. "What happens when two contradictions try to contradict each other. Quite the riddle to solve."

Naruto shot the man another paralyzing glare while Mavis crawled back to curl into his chest. He looked down at the girl in his lap and gave her a comforting smile. "There's no need to worry about the curse Mavis. I've been working on something off and on for the last century or so. It should be able to suppress the curse, and when it does, you'll be free to do as you please without the fear of hurting others hanging over your head."

Mavis stared up at him with wide eyes, and even Zeref looked surprised. "If you have something that can stop the curse, then why haven't you given it to Zeref?" the girl asked curiously.

"Because he does not trust me." Zeref answered for the blond. "He believes that whatever method he has devised to counteract the curse can be corrupted or mutated into something far more sinister that the curse itself. Thus he is reticent to bestow such a gift upon me."

Mavis looked to Naruto for confirmation and received a slow nod from the man. Meanwhile, Zeref continued. "In any event, I would not be interested in such a cure anyway. The curse is a part of me. It defines who I am and I do not wish to change it. Besides, I have my own cure of sorts. I am playing what I suppose you could call a strategy game on the western continent. I'm building an entire country from scratch. It is quite fun actually. Lately I've started to consolidate my forces and build up industry. The best part is, no one over there is human in my eyes, only pawns for me to control, and so the curse sees no reason to activate." He had a satisfied and slightly smug look on his face when he finished.

Mavis looked slightly appalled at the dark mage's admission. Seeing humans as pawns? What kind of existence was that? To think that only a few minutes ago she had been chatting happily with this monster. But wait. Would that be her in a few hundred years? Would she see herself as something above ordinary mortals? Would she become arrogant and jaded to the point that running an entire country and it's people became a game? No! Naruto had been around at least twice as long as Zeref and he was kind and gentle and caring. Zeref chose to become how he is today and she would not do that. She would strive to be like Naruto...well maybe a bit less neurotic, but still.

Her inner musings came to an end as she heard Naruto chuckle humorlessly. "You've either gotten extremely arrogant or extremely careless in the last few decades if you're going to admit all of that right to my face." He told the dark mage.

"There was no risk in me telling you this information. Unless you've been completely negligent in your duties as you like to call them, then you've surely already come across these facts from someone in your circle of informants. Besides, there is little you can do to stop my game short of crossing the ocean and murdering every last one of my subjects. But you wouldn't do that. It goes against everything you believe in. So please don't delude yourself into thinking you hold any form of power over me. We are as close to equals as there could ever be." Zeref's expression had swiftly shifted from a pleasant smile to a devious smirk by the end of speech and he let loose a superior chuckle at the two Fairies. "It seems I've outstayed my welcome, so I'll leave you two to your own devices. I'm sure we'll see eachother again, so farewell for now you two." He turned and sent a wave over his shoulder as he made his way out of the clearing.

Naruto called out to the man before he got too far. "I'm gonna give you one warning Zeref. Leave Fiore. If I find you anywhere in this country, and especially anywhere near Fairy Tail, I'll lock you in a cage at the bottom of the ocean and see how long it takes for the bars to rust over. Don't. Push me."

Zeref only chuckled and waved off the warning with a dismissive gesture. "Of course Naruto. I can tell when I'm not wanted. I truly do hope you can suppress Mavis' curse, for her sake if not your own." With that, he disappeared into the dense undergrowth of the forest.

When Mavis was sure he'd departed, she looked up at Naruto, worry and confusion vying for position on her face. "How can someone be like him? He was so kind at first, and then when you showed up, it's like a switch was flipped somewhere and he became this horrible person. It was almost like he was two separate people. Is it because of the Curse of Ankhseram? Am I going to end up like him? I don't want to be like him! He kills and controls people and calls it a game! He's insane!" She nearly broke down into tears by the end of her rant, but Naruto began running his hand calmly through her long blonde hair, and she slowly but surely settled down.

"First of all, you'll never be like Zeref. You're too kind-hearted, caring, and loyal to ever be remotely similar to him. Second, he may like to blame the curse for his psychosis, but I'm almost certain he was always that way, even before he acquired the curse. The whole reason he's cursed in the first place was because he was delving into Black Magic in an attempt to bring his dead brother back to life. While it may be a noble cause, attempted necromancy isn't exactly the hallmark of a sane individual. And third, you have something that Zeref never had."

"What's that?" Mavis asked hopefuly.

Naruto gave her his best and brightest smile. "Me. I'll be there whenever you need me. If you ever think that you're going insane, I'll always be around to tell you how wrong you are."

Mavis looked like she was going to burst from happiness. She wrapped her arms around the shinobi's broad chest and attempted to hug the life out of him.

And the next moment, a flash of power erupted from inside of her. Naruto jerked back as if he'd been struck and blood dripped in a steady stream from his ears, eyes, and nose. Around them, grass withered and died, trees lost their leaves, and little forest animals dropped dead where they stood.

Mavis opened her eyes and screamed at the scene that greeted her. She hurriedly pushed herself up off of her bleeding friend and began to shake him by the shoulders. "Naruto! Naruto, please! Wake up Naruto! You can't do this! You said you'd be okay! Please Naruto, I can't do this without you. You can't leave me here. Wake up. I'm begging you." Her pleas became softer and more desperate as she went on.

She was so distraught that she failed to notice the man below her stirring slightly. She finally became aware when Naruto began to groan and brought a hand up to massage his throbbing temples. "Naruto!" she screamed in both delight and relief, grasping him in another tight hug.

Naruto shrunk back from her voice, wincing in pain. "Ah, can we tone it down a bit Mavis? I've got a massive headache." he said to the girl clinging to his neck and muttering thanks to anyone listening.

Obliging, she backed up a few steps, and scrubbed at her eyes to clear away her tears. "Naruto...I-I killed you. You were dead there for a minute. You're bleeding from every hole on your face. I killed you and I didn't even feel it happening. I can't go back to the guild now. I'd be putting everyone there in danger."

Naruto stood and started to make his way to the terrified girl, frowning when she backed away from his advance. "Mavis," he said softly. "You didn't kill me. I can't die, remember? It was more like I was just unconscious for a bit while my brain stopped hemorrhaging. That curse is dangerous, but I've already told you that I can fix it. Now come on, I know a place we can go where the curse won't be able to hurt anyone while I contain it." He held out his hand to the younger blonde and she tentatively grasped it. He pulled her into a tight embrace, kissed the crown of her head, and then they disappeared in a flash.

Arriving at their destination, they each took a step back and looked around. Naruto turned to watch Mavis' reaction and he was not disappointed. She gasped and threw her hands over her mouth as she stared at the building in front of her. Naruto couldn't have picked a better place to bring her. The locale brought back so many happy memories of time spent with Zeira and Naruto, joking and laughing and telling stories. And it was all in amazingly good shape, considering they had left over a decade ago and not returned.

Mavis couldn't have been happier that she had finally returned to Tenroujima.

"Naruto, it looks like it hasn't aged a bit since we left. How?" Mavis questioned her best friend.

Naruto gave he an embarrassed smile and scratched at the back of his head. "Hehe, well I've been coming back here a few times a year to keep the place in shape. You know, just in case you ever wanted to come back, I wanted you and Zeira to have a home to come back to."

Mavis gave him a sad smile at those words. "Thank you Naruto. I appreciate it more than you could ever know, and I'm sure that Zeira would have loved it too. I wish you'd told me about it before. I would have insisted we bury Zeira here. Fairy Tail and Magnolia was her home, but this place was ours. For six years it was just the two of us to keep each other company." The thought of her dead friend pushed her current troubles from her mind for the moment.

"She may be buried in Magnolia, but that doesn't mean we can't make a memorial for her here. I think she would like that."

Mavis gave a bright smile at his words. That sounded like a wonderful idea. But there were things that they had to take care of first. Turning to the shinobi, she asked, "So how are you going to stop the curse from affecting everything around me? Is it some kind of magic ritual, or one of your shinobi techniques?" She knew it probably wasn't a spell. He may have been knowledgeable of nearly every aspect of both mage and shinobi life, but he was still unable to perform spells of his own. He never let that bother him though, and for good reason. He was immensely powerful without magic, and while his techniques may not have had the diversity of some of the more obscure magics, he made up for it with sheer power and skill. Plus, not even she knew the extent of his abilities. He could possess a plethora of skills that he simply never had the need or desire to showcase. So it was that she had no idea as to how he would go about helping her.

"I've told you about Fūinjutsu, right?" he asked.

"Isn't that the precursor to modern Rune Magic?" She was pretty sure she remembered him telling her and Zeira about it at some point many years ago. "It's what's on your kunai that allows you to use your Hiraishin, right?" She fingered the kunai on a chain around her neck.

"You're correct on both accounts, although Fūinjutsu can accomplish far more than runes could ever hope to. I'll be using a seal I developed in order to combat Zeref, to seal away any chance of the Black Magic asserting itself. It's a bit hard to explain the mechanics of it, but essentially, it draws the tainted magic held in a person's magic container to a different part of the body where it will become trapped inside a space/time barrier that will basically create a small pocket dimension inside your body. That dimension will exist outside of our space and time, so in essence, the magic will be both within and without your body at the same time. Does that make any sense?" Naruto realized his explanation was a bit confusing and contradictory, but he hoped she at least understood enough to be assured that it would work.

Mavis looked thoughtful for a few moments, face contorted to one of deep concentration. Then she answered. "So it's like using Requip on part of my own magic?"

Naruto was thrown by the concise summary of his rather long-winded explanation, but quickly recovered. "Uh, yeah actually, that's pretty much exactly what it's doing. There are a few downsides to this though. One is that the seal will constantly be drawing on a portion of your magic; I'm not sure how much exactly, but there's a possibility that it could significantly limit your ability to use most of your Fairy Magics." He paused and watched as Mavis mulled that over for a few minutes. She seemed to come to a conclusion and nodded resolutely. The loss of a portion of her magical power was a small price to pay for the chance to go through life without constantly worrying that she would accidentally kill someone she cared about.

Seeing that she was accepting of the first drawback, he continued to the second. "The second is more of an assumption than an actual fact. I'm not sure exactly how much space magic takes up, nor am I sure of how big the pocket dimension will be; it could be infinite or it could be as small as this island. There's really no way to know. Because of this, there's a chance that the magic being siphoned off could become ultra-concentrated in the pocket space and explode without warning." He saw Mavis put her hands over her mouth to hold in a gasp and hurried to reassure her. "To counter that, I've designed a...release valve of sorts. When we're worried that the magic is becoming too concentrated, I can activate it and all of the magic that had been stored will come out in one burst. When it gets to that time, I can take you here or some other place where we run no risk of hurting anybody."

Mavis looked concerned by this point. "So it's not actually a cure? I'll still have to worry about the magic escaping at the wrong time and hurting everyone around me. And what about you? You're just going to wait around for me to reach critical mass and then whisk me away and get your brain turned to mush by the Curse of Ankhseram? I can't let you do that. What kind of life is that?"

"I could think of worse ways to spend my time." Naruto shot back. "And besides, it could take years to fill the pocket space completely. As long as the seal stays intact on your body, it should be completely safe for you to live a normal life and continue most of your duties as guild master."

Mavis still looked hesitant. "It's not that I don't believe you or trust you to make perfectly functioning seal, it's just that if something goes wrong people will pay for it with their lives. I don't thi-" She cut herself off and gave Naruto a scared look. "Back up! I can feel it this time!"

Naruto looked startled for a moment, but recovered quickly and jumped back to what he judged was a safe distance. Not one second later, a spherical blast of energy swept out from Mavis' body, killing all of plant life it came into contact with in a fifteen meter radius. When it abated, Mavis sunk tiredly to the ground, more tears welling in her eyes. Naruto strode forward with a determined expression and lifted off the ground and into his arms.

"We're doing this whether you want to or not Mavis. I promise you it will get better. Just give the seal a chance. If you're worried about it's effectiveness, then how about this: we'll stay here on Tenroujima until the seal fills to capacity or a year passes, whichever comes first. That way we'll have a definite timeframe for when we should release the pent up magic. Does that work for you?" He looked down at the young woman in his arms as he made his way into the house and waited for an answer.

She gave a weak nod in response and burrowed herself further into his arms in search of comfort. When they reached Mavis' old room, she was unsurprised to find it in the same condition that it was in when she and Zeira had left the island. It figured that if Naruto had taken it upon himself to perform upkeep on the outside, then he would keep her room clean for her as well.

Laying her on the bed, Naruto moved the hair that had fallen into her face and rested his hand on her cheek. "I have to draw the seal directly onto your skin, so I'm going to have to take off your dress. Do you have a bathing suit or something you can wear that will give me access to your stomach?" he asked the girl, unsure if she would be comfortable stripping with him in the room.

Mavis gave a small snort. "I'm twenty-three years old Naruto, I don't care if you see my breasts." She frowned lightly. "Not that there's much to see anyway." she mumbled to herself. Naruto heard, but chose to ignore the last part.

"I just didn't want you to be uncomfortable is all." he tried to explain to the girl.

The guild master gave him an exasperated sigh. "Naruto, if there is one person in the world that I would be comfortable with seeing me naked, it would be you. So stop acting like I'm some innocent and pure little child. I'm a grown woman, with grown woman wants and desires!" she shouted, flushing red in the face.

Naruto raised an eyebrow and expertly hid his own blush. "Desires?" he asked cheekily.

Mavis huffed, and in a burst of energy sat up, brought her dress up over her head and tossed it on the floor, leaving her in nothing but a pair of panties and her kunai necklace. Crossing her arms under her small chest, she arched her eyebrow, silently asking him what he was going to do now.

Naruto's gaze shifted back and forth from face to chest, face to chest, and finally back to her face before sniffing loudly and clearing his throat. He was unable to control his blush this time. "Ahem. Yeah, well, uh, we should get started. Go ahead and lay back and we should have this done in no time." He gave her a small smile as she acquiesced, and proceeded to unseal a vile of ink and a small brush. Setting his supplies on the stand next to the bed, he got started.

Mavis giggled as the brush made contact with the skin of her stomach and began to outline the seal. She twitched a bit at the sensations but ultimately held still so that Naruto could work. And work he did. Once he began to write, it was like he entered a world of his own, and nothing could distract him, not even his subject's nearly nude state. Mavis reverently watched him work. His skill and knowledge was truly something to respect and admire. She felt that she could watch him in this state for hours; it was a beautiful thing.

Alas, his work took only half an hour to complete, and when he was done, ink lines spanned from her hip bones to just below the slight swell of her breasts, with all manner of characters and squiggles filling the area in between.

When the last line was complete, he leaned back to assess his work. Finding it to be as close to perfect as he would get it, he turned his attention to the girl herself. He found her to be looking back at him with a soft smile shining from her cherubic face.

"You're amazing to watch while you work, did you know that?" she asked him in a voice barely more than a whisper.

Naruto blushed at her effusive praise and returned her smile with a thanks before turning serious. "I don't want to lie to you Mavis, this next part will probably be extremely painful. The seal is going to forcibly tear part of your magic from you, and it won't be gradual. It'll come all at once, last for a few seconds at the most, and then fade. It's probably going to leave you exhausted for awhile, so I'll send a clone back to the guild to tell everyone you won't be around for a bit. Does that all sound ok?" Mavis gave him a slightly shaky nod in response. He moved his hand to hover over her belly button, around which the center of the seal lay. "Ready?" he asked.

"Hold my hand please?" Her voice was small and Naruto could tell she was scared, but she was doing her best to hide it. He grasped her hand with his own while his free hand prepared to activate the seal. "Tell Precht that he's to be acting Master while I'm gone." Her words drew his attention once more and he gave her a nod in understanding.

"Take a deep breath and let it out slowly." he told her. When she'd done as he'd told her, he squeezed her hand once and activated the seal.

Suddenly, Pain. Pain was all she knew and all she would ever know. It was sharp and piercing, searing heat and icy cold. It felt like her very blood was being purged from her veins, and her organs were exploding. Her muscles seemed to tear themselves apart and stitch back together, over and over again. The pressure in her chest was immense, like a horde of dragons was using her as a trampoline. Her back arched off the bed and she nearly folded herself in two. Her only solace was the soothing presence of Naruto's hand grasped in her own. It was her anchor, keeping her from floating off into oblivion as the torture continued.

And just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped and she collapsed to the bed in a heap. Her breaths were ragged and sweat dripped off of her in sheets. Her hair was matted and mussed and her throat raw from the screams.

She fought to keep her eyes open but was rapidly losing the battle. She tugged insistently on Naruto's hand to bring him closer. He didn't say a word, just sat himself on the bed next to her and wiped at her sweaty forehead with a hand towel he produced from who-knows-where.

"C'mere." she whispered, even that small vocalization exacerbating the horrible pain in her throat. He did as she asked and brought his head closer to hear her next words. With the last of her strength, she raised her head and brought her lips to his in a brief but loving kiss and then fell back to the bed and into blissful unconsciousness.

He stared at her prone form for a moment in surprise, but shook himself out of it rather quickly. Lifting her lithe body, he gently slid her under the covers, making sure she was sufficiently covered to protect whatever remained of her modesty. Ever the gentleman, he was.

A moment later, a clone popped up next to him and gave an understanding nod; he knew what he was created to do. The clone threw the unconscious girl a wanting look until his creator shooed him away. The clone departed with a flash.

Arriving at his destination, the clone looked around Mavis' office; he would make sure to bring some of her more important things with him back to Tenroujima. He exited the office and was surprised to hear not only the raucous cheering normally heard in the guild hall, but also the wailing of a baby. It seemed Rita had finally given birth.

He worked his way through the crowded room to the place where a bed lay pressed against the wall. Rita lay sweaty and flushed on the bed, but beamed happily at any and everything, most notably her husband who was holding a newborn baby wrapped in a bundle of blankets. The clone smiled warmly at the sight of the happy family. He wished he didn't have to interrupt them, but his message was important.

Stepping forward, he laid a hand on Yury's shoulder. The younger blond turned around and gave the clone a one-armed hug, careful not to squish the precious new life held between them. "Naruto!" he shouted. "You're here! You haven't happened to see Mavis have you? She left last week for 'an adventure', as she called it, and we haven't heard from her since she left. The paperwork is piling up in her office. Oh!" he jolted. "Meet little Makarov! He's all of twenty minutes old! We were trying to get a hold of Mavis so we could ask her to be his godmother, but like I said, we can't find her."

The Naruto clone smiled at the ecstatic man and gave his congratulations, but it morphed to a small frown after a moment. He leaned in to make sure that only Yury could hear him. "I really hate to do this, but I need to tear you away from your son for a few minutes. If you could grab Warrod and Precht and meet me in Mavis' office, we can talk in there." He stepped back and gave the man an apologetic shrug before turning and walking back to the office he had arrived in.

Yury, having seen the serious look in Naruto's eyes, handed little Makarov back to Rita and placed a kiss on her forehead. Whispering in her ear that he would return in a bit, he straightened and gestured for Precht and Warrod to follow him. They obliged, and soon, the three mages made their way into Mavis' office.

The clone watched the three men enter and close the door behind them, and then placed a hand on the desk behind him and pulsed his chakra. The room seemed to flash a bright white for a moment, but quickly went back to the way it had been as the silencing seals took effect.

The three mages exchanged worried glances at how serious and out of character the ninja was acting. Shrugging to each other when none of them showed any clue as to the reason, they turned and waited for Naruto to start.

"So, to begin with, I'm a clone. The real me is with Mavis right now while she recovers." He had to pause to wait for their questions to cease before he continued. "We're currently on Tenroujima in Mavis and Zeira's old house. I've been providing upkeep for it in case we ever needed to use it as a safehouse. Anyway, I had to apply a seal to Mavis in order to contain an extremely dangerous magic that would otherwise be expelled from her body unchecked and threaten those around her. The process is extremely draining so she's currently sleeping off it's effects under the real Me's watch."

"What magic does she have that's so dangerous it required you to contain it?" Precht asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I take it you remember the man who taught the five of you magic when you first arrived in Magnolia ten years ago?"

"You said that was Zeref, right?" Warrod confirmed.

"Exactly. Anyway, from what Mavis has told me, you were unable to approach him because his magic would sporadically release itself and kill every living thing in a predetermined radius, is that correct?"

"Yeah, once while he was carving a diagram into a tree, all of a sudden the whole thing turned this dark ugly gray and the leaves shriveled up and turned to dust." Yury explained. He thought for a beat, then burst out, "You're saying Mavis is gonna go around killing shit on accident when her magic explodes?" The other two ex-treasure hunters looked equally alarmed by this revelation, and looked at the clone for confirmation.

He nodded at the three, but explained further before they could protest. "It's called the Curse of Ankhseram, or the Contradictory Curse. The less one values human life, the easier it is to control, and vice versa. So obviously, Mavis being Mavis, would find it incredibly hard to control the curse. Luckily I'd already been working on a way to stop it so that it'd be easier to fight Zeref." When they looked confused, he added. "It's hard to fight someone who causes your brain to hemorrhage whenever you get within thirty feet of him, you know?"

The mages gaped at the clone's blunt declaration of the curses effects. Sweet little Mavis was causing people's brains to hemorrhage? They couldn't believe it!

"How did she become afflicted with this curse?" Precht asked. "How long has she had it?"

"The curse comes from messing with Dark Magic." he told them. They looked confused. When the Hell had Mavis ever played around with Dark Magic? Seeing this, Naruto explained, "Law is a Dark Magic. Before Mavis modified it, Law was a spell designed to rip the soul from a person's body. I doubt Zeref took the time to explain that to her when he was teaching it, but suffice to say that you're extremely lucky that it was incomplete when she tried to use it on you Yury."

All three mages looked pale, but Yury looked particularly ashen as all of the color drained from his face. "But wait," Warrod said. "If she's had this curse for the last decade, why is it only now becoming a problem?"

"Judging from what Zeref said earlier and what I already know of the curse, it seems like losing Zeira followed by the war soon after, led to a shift in Mavis' way of thinking. My only guess is that she was worse off than any of us thought, and as such, the curse saw no reason to activate. But now that she's finally recovering, it's beginning to manifest itself. It doesn't help that she's completely aware of it now. It's become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since she learned about it this afternoon, it's gone off twice."

They all took a minute to digest all of this information. "Wait." Yury said, grabbing everyone's attention. "You said you talked to Zeref earlier. He was here?" Precht and Warrod seemed startled by Yury's conclusion and looked to the clone for confirmation.

"He and Mavis apparently stumbled upon each other in the forest a good ways out of town, and then I stumbled upon them a few minutes into their conversation. From there, Zeref told us a few things that I already knew, and confirmed even more that I'd already suspected. Which brings me to my next point. Mavis is immortal."

Yury, Precht, and Warrod simply stared at the clone. There was one minute of absolute silence before three simultaneous "WHAT!"s rang out in the office. Precht was the first to recover fully. "She's immortal? As in she will never die of old age? Or she can't be killed at all, like you?" He seemed amazed at the prospect of eternal life. Even more so than when he had learned of Naruto's. Probably because Mavis had achieved it with magic, whereas Naruto's immortality was something far beyond his comprehension.

Naruto scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, I'd say she's more like Zeref than me, considering their immortality spans from the same curse, but in essence, she is like both myself and Zeref in that she cannot be killed at all. Or at least, that is the assumption that we are making with the information we have. In truth, there would be no safe way to test it without the possibility of putting Mavis' life in danger, and I refuse to do that." This last point was delivered with all of the conviction he could muster, and it worked as the three men in front of him nodded their agreement with determined looks on their faces.

"It really is amazing if you think about it." Warrod said. The others looked at him, curious as to what he was talking about. "I mean the fact that in the span of little more than a year, Mavis would meet the only two immortal men in the world, and then become immortal herself a short time later. It's a hell of a coincidence, don't you think?"

The other men pondered it for a moment and agreed. Yury chuckled a moment later. "Hehe, if I didn't know her any better, I'd have said she'd meant for this to happen." He wiggled his eyebrows at Precht and Warrod, causing them to break out in snickers while Naruto just stood there looking confused.

"Umm, what?"

Warrod choked out one last chuckle. "N-nothing Naruto. Don't worry about it."

The clone just rolled his eyes. "Moving on, there's just one more thing I need to talk to you about before you can go back to fawning over little Makarov." Once he had their full attention, he continued. "Mavis and the real me won't be returning to the mainland for the next year or so." Seeing that they were about to protest, he waved a hand to silence them. "The seal I designed has one flaw in that I have no idea how much of Mavis' cursed magic it can hold without becoming unstable and imploding." He watched them pale once more. "I don't mean that Mavis herself will explode, it's just that the magic that had been built up inside the seal could rupture the containment mechanism and release itself at an inopportune time, which could endanger everyone in the guild. Once we know how long the seal can hold the magic for, we can set up a schedule for when to release it so that it's away from civilization. Does that make sense?"

The three men understood his reasoning, but that didn't mean they were happy about it. What the hell were they supposed to do with their guild master gone for an entire year? As if reading their minds, Naruto spoke up again.

"In the meantime, Mavis has asked me to appoint Precht as the interim guild master until she can return." The man looked surprised but deeply honored by his appointment. "There's no need for me to tell you all that what we've talked about today is not to leave this room. The only thing that we were doing in here was discussing Precht's appointment to interim master, got it?" They nodded seriously and the clone smiled. "Good. Yury, I'll be sure to pass along your and Rita's wish for her to become Makarov's godmother. I'm sure she'll be delighted."

Walking up to the three men in front of him and shook each of their hands. "Just because the real me will be staying on the island with Mavis, doesn't mean you can go destroying the guild's reputation while we're gone. I'll be sending clones to check up on the place periodically and to grab supplies as needed. And if you ever need anything, you know where the kunai are." He gave them a small glare. "That doesn't mean you can take every opportunity to play some dumbass joke, eh Warrod?" Said man gulped and shook his head. "Good. Remember, they're for emergencies only." A hand raised into the air and the clone sighed. "No Yury, stripper-grams do not qualify as an emergency." The man sulked. "You're married with a kid. Get over it. Any more questions?" All three men shook their heads. "Alright, I've got to gather a few things to take back with me so I'll leave you to it."

The mages turned to leave, but Precht stopped before they reached the door. "What do we tell the guild about Mavis making me master?"

Naruto pondered the question. "Just tell them that she's taking a leave of absence to search for the fairies. That should satisfy anyone who asks."

Yury and Warrod chuckled while Precht nodded his assent. "Alright," the new master said. "We'll go inform the guild now."

Before they left Warrod said one last thing. "Tell her we'll miss her. It won't be the same without you two around."

"I'll let her know. See you guys around." He gave a jaunty wave and Hiraishined out of the office and towards Mavis' house on the edge of Magnolia. Gathering everything he thought she could possibly need, he sealed it away and departed for Tenroujima.

**A/N:** Longest chapter yet. Nearly 10k words. Don't expect them to be this long going forward. I just couldn't find a good place to end this. I think earlier I said that I'd only be doing pre-cannon for one or two more chapters, but it'll probably be a bit closer to ch.10 before we even get to anywhere near cannon time. Sorry if that's not what you guys want, but it's where my writing is taking me.

This is the first big break from cannon (besides Zeira), and as such, things will happen differently from here on out. Also, props to SchwaigerLuke for the idea of slapping a seal on that shit to make it better. God bless reality-bending fuuinjutsu.

For those who disliked the backwards story-telling of last chapter, no worries, it won't happen again any time soon. Honestly, it's the order in which I actually came up with what to write and I liked the way it worked into a kind of "Memento" type flow.

That's all for me. I've got midterms in the next two weeks, but I've already got Ch.6 started so I can hopefully get it out by next Sunday. Not promising anything.


	6. Chapter 6

When Mavis awoke the next morning, it was to sights and sounds that she had dreamed about for years. The aching in her bones that had dragged her from the land of dreams was quickly pushed to the back of her mind to make way for the fact that she was currently in bed with Naruto. She seemed to be wearing one of his shirts which hung off of her frame like one of his cloaks did on him. He was laying on his back with an arm draped around her shoulders as she lay curled up to his side with her head on his chest. She couldn't quite remember how or why they'd ended up like this and the ache was beginning to return, so to escape it, she closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.

The next time she woke up was because of the man trying as smoothly as possible to shift himself out from underneath her. Without opening her eyes, she grabbed his shirt and held on tightly to keep him from moving. Her brain was working faster than it had earlier that morning and she quickly realized where she was and who was under her. What she wasn't sure of was when she would next be able to enjoy this, so for now she was going to milk this for all it was worth.

Naruto felt her grip tighten on his shirt and abandoned his attempt to escape. Instead he began to run his fingers through her hair and asked, "How are you feeling?"

She didn't respond at first, content to luxuriate in the feeling of having her hair played with. Finally, she twisted her head around so that her chin dug into his pectoral and she could look him in the eye. With a slight frown, she answered him. "Honestly? I feel like death warmed over. Every part of me hurts in some way or another and I feel weaker than I have since I started learning Illusion Magic when I was eight."

Naruto gave her a sympathetic look. "That's all to be expected. If I understand it correctly, the Black Magic wasn't just in your magical container; it was spread out through your entire body, just waiting to escape. As such, the seal didn't just take the magic from your container, but literally ripped it away from other parts of your body where it had taken root. As for feeling weaker, it'll be a temporary feeling. Your body is just used to functioning with significantly more magic than is currently inside of you. You're an extremely powerful mage with ridiculous amounts of magic. The amount that the seal is taking away may be enough for you to feel it, but it shouldn't be enough to affect more than your endurance, and even that can be fixed through training."

Mavis wished he had mentioned the whole 'ripping magic out of your bones, muscles, and organs' before she'd agreed to the seal, but she figured what's done is done. She felt like crap and nothing but time would change that now. As for the lack of endurance, she hoped he was right and it wasn't as bad as she thought it was. It would be devastating if she lost most of her magic to this stupid curse. She'd worked hard to get where she was, damnit! There was no way she could let this get to her. She wasn't weak! She was the guild master of the best guild in the world - in her humble opinion at least. She wouldn't be worthy of that title if she just gave up at the first sign of trouble! No, she and Naruto had one year on this island to get her back into shape, to a point where she would be worthy of the title of 'Master' once more. And if there was one person who could help her get strong - again - it was Naruto.

Said man, for his part, simply watched the different expressions play over her face like a movie. First annoyance, then resigned acceptance, worry, anger, and finally, steely determination. As the last expression came over her face, she refocused on Naruto and said, "You're going to help me train so that I can get back to my old strength - no - stronger than I was before! I won't let this curse be the end of me! If I give up now, it would bring shame to all of Fairy Tail. What kind of Master lets something as mundane and trivial as the Curse of Ankhseram keep them from doing their best to protect their guild? I'll tell you what kind! Quitters! And I'm not, nor will I ever be, a quitter!"

Naruto couldn't help it. He tried, oh how he tried, to keep from bursting out into a fit of giggles. Alas, he failed. He let out an amused snort and then erupted into peals of laughter. The indignant look that came over Mavis' face at his laughing only served to make him laugh even harder until tears of mirth streamed down his face.

Mavis, looking highly affronted began slapping at Naruto's chest to get him to stop. When it failed to do anything but make him laugh even harder, she decided it was time to take things up a notch. Ignoring the ache burning through her body, she pushed herself up onto all fours and moved to straddle his chest. Acting quickly she plugged his nose with one hand and covered his mouth with the other, hoping that he would stop laughing once he realized he couldn't breath. Sadly, it was not to be, as Naruto lightly bit the hand covering his mouth and then, when she pulled it away, snatched both of her arms at the wrist and held them up above his head.

The result was her body dangling inches above his own while his laughter died down into light chuckles. And suddenly, Mavis wasn't sure why she'd been angry. Staring down at the man below her, Mavis felt a jolt run through her body as Naruto simply stared right back with a broad grin on his face. She couldn't hold it in anymore. I mean come on; he was practically begging for it. Gathering up all of her courage, she quickly leaned down the scant few inches separating them and pressed her lips to his in a searing kiss.

The spark that always seemed to ignite in her chest when she thought of Naruto suddenly burst into an enormous blaze that threatened to consume her very soul. It was amazing what feelings he could inspire within her just by touching his lips to hers. She was happier than she had ever been in her life. Elated just to be here in this moment. In the back of her mind, she registered the fact that the seal must be working, because she was fit to burst with love and affection for the man she was kissing, but the curse had yet to strike.

However, through the haze of burning desire, Mavis was able to register one very important fact: he wasn't kissing her back. That thought brought the kiss to an abrupt end as she pulled back from the blond's face and opened her eyes.

The sight that greeted her would have been hilarious if she wasn't so distraught. Naruto was staring at her, eyes wide and body rigid. She noticed that the grip on her wrists had tightened and was starting to become uncomfortable. She tugged and pulled until he caught the hint and let go so that she could sit upright once again. He lowered his hands to the side and she did the same. They continued to stare at eachother until Mavis could take it no longer and pushed herself off of him and climbed out of the bed.

It was then that the pain hit her in full. She cried out as her legs gave way from under her and she fell to the ground. Her shout seemed to snap Naruto out of his daze and he jumped out of bed to catch her before she could collide with the rough stone floor.

"You're still hurt." he told her in a slightly reprimanding tone. "You need bedrest for the next few days, at least." He set her back in the bed and tucked the covers around her. Placing himself on the edge of the bed, he looked toward her and let out a weary sigh. Mavis was staring at her hands in her lap while she laid back against the headboard. Her hands fiddled with the fraying quilt and her bangs hid her eyes from view.

"I'm sorry." she croaked out, refusing to look up from her lap.

Naruto squeezed her leg comfortingly from above the quilt. "Don't be sorry Mavis. You did nothing wrong. You just took me by surprise is all. It's been...well, a very, very long time since anyone has kissed me, and you've done it twice in less than twenty-four hours now. I suppose I just wasn't ready for it." He chuckled a bit. "You know, the only other person I've ever kissed was my wife back when the ninja villages were still around." He gaze became cloudy as he reminisced of days long past. "She was the most beautiful and loving person I'd-"

"Stop!" Mavis yelled, interrupting his story before it could really get started.

Naruto frowned. "Mavis, it might not be what you wanted to hear, but I'm trying to explain why things are the way they are. Yes, I was married. Yes, I had children. Yes I loved them dearly; I still do."

"No!" she shouted, finally looking up from her lap. Her eyes once again blazed with determination. "You can't talk about that yet! I still haven't guessed how old you are!"

That caught Naruto off guard. "W-what!? What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with this! Don't you remember? The very first time that we met, right outside this room, you said that you would only tell me about your early life in a ninja village once I'd guessed how old you are!"

Naruto looked incredulous. "Mavis, I'm trying to open myself up to you right now. Can we forget the stupid game for five minutes?"

"No!" she hollered. "It's not stupid, and you can't just forget it. Just...give me one chance to guess your age. That's all I want. It wouldn't be right otherwise."

Naruto stood up from the bed and began to pace back and forth, rubbing a hand through his hair, making it stick out even more than usual. "Fine," he said, "one guess. But whether you get it right or not, I'm going to tell you what I want to tell you. Got it?" She answered in the affirmative and he sighed. "Alright, go ahead and guess. Make it count." He looked right at her and waited for her guess.

Without a hint of doubt in her voice, she said, "You're 937 years young."

"Nope." he answered flippantly. "I'm most certainly not nin - wait, what did you say?"

Mavis cocked her head with a satisfied smirk aimed right at the shell shocked Naruto. "I said that you are nine hundred and thirty-seven years young."

Naruto spluttered. "H-how the Hell did you guess that?"

"That's easy," Mavis told him. "I didn't guess. I've know how old you are for years now. I worked it out through logical deduction based on various stories that you told me and some extracurricular research on the history of the ninja villages."

"If you knew, then why didn't you say anything? Why did you keep guessing the wrong age each time?"

Mavis' smirk died away and she quickly sobered. "I didn't want you to resent me." she admitted. "I wanted to wait until you were ready to open up to me. If I had tried to force you to talk about yourself, it would have just pushed you away. I don't think I could stand it if you hated me, so I decided to wait until you came to me. Obviously my patience is being rewarded." she gave him a bright smile. "I'm not upset that you were married. I'd always assumed you'd been married at least once before. I was never under the delusion that I'd be your first anything. I'm more surprised that you haven't been with anyone else since you wife died. That level of commitment is laudable."

Naruto moved to seat himself back on the edge of the bed. "It wasn't commitment that kept me from marrying again," he admitted. "It was fear. Don't get me wrong. I loved, still love Hinata dearly. The thought of her was the only thing that kept me going before I met you and Zeira. But the pain I felt when she died, I don't want to ever experience that kind of loss again. It was bad enough watching my friends die around me, one by one, but watching Hinata grow old and start to fade before my eyes was the most torturous thing I've ever been put through. I've never wanted to die as much as I did on the day that I buried her.

"So don't applaud me for staying loyal to my wife after all these years. I'm a coward. I ran away from my fears and let them rule me for centuries. I faked my own death so that I could escape the burden of having to watch my children grow old and die while I stayed young forever. I lived alone in the mountains. I decided that if I didn't have any friends or loved ones, I couldn't be sad when they died. I didn't eat, I didn't drink, I didn't speak. All I did was train and sleep.

"I tried killing myself a few dozen times. Every couple of years I would think that I'd found the key to ending my life. I drank nothing but the most lethal poisons for two weeks straight, I disemboweled myself, one time I even cut my own head off. It didn't work. Nothing ever worked. The poisons didn't do a thing, and my intestines would just crawl back inside of me and then my skin would stich itself shut. I still don't know how my head got back on my body. Everything went black after I cut it off, and when I woke up I was covered in blood and my head was right back where it should be.

"By the time I finally came down from my hiding place, the ninjas had pretty much wiped themselves out. The few left that could still mold chakra became feared and were forced from their homes under threat of death. With them gone, there was maybe fifty years of peace before things started changing. I have an ability called Sage Mode." he told her. "It allows me to absorb the energy that is present in nature and harness it to become exponentially more powerful. I can hit and get hit much harder than usual, and when I was young, it afforded me better chakra control so that it became easier to perform my techniques.

"This is mostly just speculation on my part, but seeing as I'm the only one around now who was able to observe the shift, I like to think I know what I'm talking about. Chakra, if you didn't know, is the combination of physical and spiritual energy inside of a person's body. It's the lifeforce that keeps your heart pumping and your brain working. As such, expelling it to perform jutsus could be extremely dangerous. If you ran out of chakra, you would die. There were signs beforehand to warn you when you were low on chakra: your heart rate would slow, it would become nearly impossible to move, and organs would begin to shut down in increasing order of importance. But if you used it all at once, or chose to ignore and push past the warnings your body would give you, it would be quite simple for you to kill yourself."

Mavis was a mix of awestruck and extremely disturbed by the influx of information Naruto was providing. She had never imagined that she would be given all of this information, especially without prompting. She was learning about the origins of Magic for goodness sake! Scholars were still debating to this day on where magic came from, and here she was receiving a first-hand account from someone who was there! But then there was this chakra that his people used. What kind of barbarians would convert their own lifeforce into weapons with which to kill each other? She snapped back to attention when Naruto continued.

"So without people able to use chakra, there was an imbalance. Humans had lost a vital way to defend themselves from each other as well as nature. My theory is that, once the last of the ninjas died out, nature stepped in and through the process of evolution, adapted the human body to passively absorb natural chakra in a similar way to what I do with Sage Mode. However, because it is done passively and over an extended period of time, as opposed to Sage Mode which takes less than a minute, the effects that I'm granted are diluted in the rest of the population. My body essentially becomes harder than steel, while yours simply becomes more durable, able to take blows that would cripple the average person and shake them off with little issue. I'm granted an immensely accurate sensor ability, and stronger mages gain the ability to sense the magic in those around them, even to the point of determining their affinity. I can more easily mold my chakra, while you gain the ability to manipulate it in the first place. And because none of this requires the use of your own lifeforce, it's magnitudes more safe than ninjas using their own chakra. Does that all make sense?"

Mavis gaped a little dumbly while absently nodding her head. "Can you show me?" she asked.

"Show you?"

"Sage Mode." she clarified.

"Oh yeah, sure thing." Closing his eyes, he held perfectly still for around fifteen seconds. When he was finished, he opened his eyes to look back at the bedridden girl. Mavis gasped.

His eyes, once a deep cerulean, had become bright gold in color. His pupils had morphed into wide horizontal bars reminiscent of a goat, or perhaps-

"A toad." Naruto said, and she started. "I used to summon talking toads to assist me in battle. They're the ones who taught me how to absorb natural chakra, and because I learned it in their homeland, where their presence saturated the very air around them, my own features adapted to resemble them."

Mavis was amazed. It was like nothing she'd seen before. The only thing that she could possibly equate it to was some form of Take-Over Magic. But even that was a poor comparison. The physical changes were minimal at best, while the abilities he gained were apparently far superior to even the most powerful of Take-Overs that she had encountered. "So you're super strong when you're like this?" she asked. She wanted to see it with her own eyes.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I'll give you a quick example, but then I'm going back to talking. I've gotten way off topic from what I'd wanted to talk to you about." With her agreement, he stood up and walked to the foot of the bed. Bending down, he grasped one of the legs, and without the slightest bit of effort, lifted the entire bed nearly five feet off the ground with one hand. Setting the bed down carefully, he wiped his hands on his pants and moved back to his seat.

"That's amazing." Mavis whispered. "It's no wonder you hid your identity during the war. If the Council had found out that all of that power belonged to one man, they'd have had you arrested or killed on the spot. You could have fought that entire war by yourself couldn't you? Even if numbers became an issue, you could probably make enough clones to outnumber the enemy forces without breaking a sweat."

Naruto gave a modest shrug. "I suppose. It isn't something I would enjoy though. It was bad enough killing all of the people that I did under the different disguises. If I'd had to fight the whole army by myself, I'd probably give up just so I didn't have to end all those people's lives for something as stupid as trade rights."

Mavis gave his hand a squeeze. "I understand. It was bad enough sending so many people to their deaths from the command tents; I don't know what I would have done if I was out on the front lines like you and the boys were."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, then coughed. "We should get back on topic. I think, before you decide that you want to go around kissing me all the time, that I should tell you about myself. I realize that I've been unfair to you in that I know nearly all there is to know about you, and you know next to nothing about some of the most important years of my life." He paused and thought for a second. "I think I'll send a clone to go get snacks, because we might be here awhile."

They both settled in and he began. He told her everything; growing up alone, an orphan since the day he was born, being scorned by the village for unknown reasons, being treated to ramen by the third Hokage. He told her about attending the academy, being the dead last, failing the graduation exam, and learning the reason the villagers hated him. He told her of the sentient mass of chakra he had once held inside of him; the Kyuubi. He showed her the seal that still sat on his stomach, despite the fact that the fox's consciousness had long since faded, whereupon she remarked that they now matched each other and Naruto chuckled.

He explained the various struggles he faced in order to win the village's approval. He told her of it's destruction by 'God' and his subsequent defeat of said 'God'. She learned of the events leading up to what would become the Fourth Great Shinobi War, and of the war itself. Fighting the dead, working with the past Hokages including his own father, and eventually stopping a deranged goddess from enslaving the world. Having the remaining Bijuu sealed into him. Fighting his best friend over the fate of their village and losing his right arm.

He shared his suspicions that the First Hokage's cells, used to rebuild his arm, combined with the power of all nine Bijuu and the Uzumaki clan's legendary longevity were the cause of his immortality. Upon hearing his thoughts on the subject, she had to agree that the combination of those circumstances seemed like the most likely reason for his situation.

He moved on to stories about his wife, Hinata, and their two kids, Boruto and Himawari. To accompany his words, he lifted his shirt and activated a storage seal located above his heart - prompting Mavis to smile lightly at the symbolism - and brought out a series of pictures that were in remarkably good shape for being over 900 years old. When she mentioned that to Naruto though, he just laughed and reached back to his chest and retrieved a canister containing a full roll of film. "I manage to wear the pictures out pretty quickly, so I keep the negatives to reprint them whenever I need to." With that, he began to point out his wife and children, as well as a few of the friends he had mentioned earlier in his story.

Mavis had never seen Naruto as expressive as he was when he described his family. She could practically feel the love pouring off of him in waves as he reminisced. And after viewing the pictures, she was in awe of how beautiful Hinata was. Her deep blue hair and oddly pearlescent eyes - which Naruto informed her was a doujutsu, or as she would call it, Eye Magic, that allowed her to see nearly 360 degrees at once - along with her curvaceous figure, all worked together to paint an extremely attractive picture. And if she was as kind and loving as Naruto made her out to be, then it was no surprise he had fallen in love with her.

It saddened her and made her feel guilty all at once. What did she have that could compare with Hinata? She was neither tall, nor curvaceous, nor could she ever bare him children. She was nothing compared to the poised and perfect woman in the pictures. And she was trying to steal Naruto from her. Naruto was Hinata's and she was trying to encroach on that. But she couldn't help it! She just-

"Hey." Mavis felt Naruto's hand on her head, and looked up at him. "Stop it. I know what you're doing, and you need to stop now. She may have been the person that I loved most in the world, but she's dead. I've accepted that. It still hurts sometimes but I think this has helped a lot. And just because I love her, doesn't mean she's the only woman I'll ever love." She looked hopeful at this. "I do love you Mavis." The blonde's face shined brilliantly. "I don't think it's the kind of love that you're looking for," Her expression collapsed into despair. "But there's no telling what time will bring. That's all I'm asking for Mavis. Just time to get used to the idea, ok? It's been 850 years since I've tried to love anyone the way you want me to love you; I'll need a while to reacquaint myself with the idea."

By the end of his monologue, Mavis had restrained herself to a mildly hopeful expression. "I guess I can understand that." she admitted. "Time is the one thing that we have in spades, so if that's all it takes to get you to fall in love with me, then I can exercise a little patience." She grinned challengingly. "But don't think that means I'm just gonna sit around and wait for you to fall into my lap. No, soon enough you'll come crawling on your knees. Just you wait."

Naruto chuckled at the girl. "I'll be looking forward to it." He glanced out the window to see that the sun was beginning to set. They'd been talking all day. "I'm gonna go cook us up some dinner. After we eat, you're going to bed." Mavis pouted. "Don't give me that look. You need rest. The sooner you're up and about, the sooner we can get to training." he told her. She looked excited at the prospect of training with someone as strong as Naruto.

Mavis affected a pompous tone. "Then what are you waiting for? Go fetch me my supper, boy. If you keep me waiting, you'll be punished severely." She crossed her arms over her chest and raised her nose in the air.

Naruto just gave the blonde a deadpan look. "I'll be sure to remember that when we start training." He smirked as he watched her face lose it's color. "I'll get to work as quickly as possible ojou-sama." He left the room.

It took four days for the pain to completely leave Mavis' body, and when it did, she quickly insisted that it was time they begin training. Naruto asked her to wait a few more days to make sure that everything was healed, be she would have none of it.

So it was, that Naruto took the girl a few miles away from their house and into a large clearing that he had created the day before with a few Futon and Doton jutsus. When they arrived, he began to explain what they would be doing for the next year.

"Alright. The most important thing that we need to work on is your physical strength. You got the short end of the stick when the curse stopped you from aging so soon into puberty." Mavis frowned and grabbed her chest. Naruto sighed. "That's not what I meant and you know it. Because your body stopped growing when it did, you're never going to be able to go toe to toe with fully grown mages in contests of raw strength. That's going to be your biggest weakness in the future. However, there are a few ways we can go about fixing this." Mavis looked interested in Naruto's breakdown of her abilities. "We can work on your dodging and endurance to try to outlast any opponent you might face, or we can find a Supplemental Magic that can help enhance your strength and make opponents worry about getting in close to fight."

Mavis seemed like she was mulling over the two options in her mind, but before she could choose, Naruto chose for her. "I don't like doing things in half-measures, so we're gonna work on both of them." He smiled at her perplexed expression. "Endurance and dodging first, because even if you can tank a hit coming at you, you should always try to avoid unnecessary injury. Supplemental Magic second so that just in case you face someone quick enough to reach you, they'll have a nasty surprise waiting for them if they try to fight you close up. If you're small and lightweight and tend to dodge a lot, no opponent is going to think for a second that you're competent in hand-to-hand combat. And when we're not working on those two things, we're going to work on getting your magic back up to where it was." Mavis looked impressed that he had thought all of this up. She hadn't expected such comprehensive training when she suggested the idea in the first place. "All of that should take up most of our time here, so let's get to work." Naruto clapped his hands once, and his face slipped into a devious smirk. "Run fifty laps around the clearing. No stopping."

Mavis laughed at Naruto's little joke and waited for him to tell her what to really do.

"Did I stutter?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "Get moving. your up to sixty laps now. If you don't finish this, then you can expect to go hungry tonight." He looked angry, and anger was not an expression she was used to seeing on Naruto; directed at her, at least.

Sighing, she resigned herself to the fact that she had brought this upon herself, and began to run.

By the end of the day, Mavis had discovered that the Naruto that she had grown to love could be one of the most heartless, ruthless, taskmasters that she had ever had the displeasure of meeting. After running her sixty laps and collapsing to the ground while wheezing in pain, Naruto had informed her that her warm up was over and it was time to get to the real training. He confessed to her that he had borrowed this next exercise from his grandmother - who wasn't actually his grandmother, but actually the leader of his old village. To start, he had her stand at one end of the clearing while he stood at the other. From there he would launch balls of compressed wind at her with the instruction that she was to, "Dodge everything. Every hit is fifty push-ups." The spheres of wind were incredibly hard to see, and hit like a train. She knew that last part because she got hit by them thirteen times, which left her with more than 600 push-ups to complete at the end of the exercise.

The worst part of it all was that she couldn't even cite broken bones as an excuse to take a break or just quit altogether. Every time the spheres of wind broke a bone - which was nearly every time they made contact - Naruto would simply pause for ten seconds while the bone knit itself back together and then repeat the process once more.

So at 8:00 that evening, after eating three portions of the dinner Naruto had made, she shuffled off to her bedroom to change into pyjamas and crawl into bed. Once she was settled in, but before she could drift off, Naruto poked his head in the door. She was too tired to even direct a mean face his way, so she just sat and waited for him to speak.

Naruto entered the room and perched himself on the side of her bed. She had been too exhausted to shower that evening, so he brought a wet washcloth to clean the worst of the dirt from her face. As he did this, he spoke.

"I'm really proud of you. You took everything I threw at you and pushed through it. I know it seemed terrible, but everything I had you do today is geared toward making you stronger so that you can protect the guild and everyone in it. As time goes on, this will get easier and easier, and eventually, you'll be able to do everything we did today and hardly break a sweat." He smiled at her and she managed to return the gesture, albeit, halfheartedly. Standing up, he gave her hand a squeeze and headed to the door. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow begins bright and early so be ready." He turned and gave her one last smile. "Goodnight Mavis. I'll see you in the morning." With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

It was then that Mavis realized that the first few days here on the island were her vacation. She lazed around in bed and chatted with Naruto for hours on end, or she read one of the hundreds of books she and Zeira had kept in the library. It was peaceful and she only realized now how much she was going to miss it. Because today was her first real day back on Tenroujima. This was what it would be like for the next year, and despite her exhausted, aching body, and the promise of pain and suffering in the near future, she found that she couldn't wait for tomorrow. Because tomorrow she would be one step closer to becoming truly strong, and one step closer to Naruto.

A/N: I really don't like this chapter which is why I didn't put it out on Sunday when I finished it. I don't have a romantic bone in my body which makes trying to write sweet heartwarming shit extremely difficult. I've been binge watching anime romcoms for inspiration but that isn't working to well. On the plus side though I got to enjoy some really good shows. Chapter 7 might take awhile. School has been a complete shitstorm for the last two weeks and will continue to be until at least the end of the month. On a related note, it's 4am here and I just read an entire novel and wrote an eight page response on it, all in one sitting. I'm pretty damn proud of myself. That's all for now.


	7. Chapter 7

Mavis rushed her opponent head on, deliberately ignoring rule number one of everything she had learned over the last six months. When she got within range, she jumped up and launched a spinning back kick at her opponent. As she released her chambered leg, the limb suddenly shifted, going from pale smooth skin to a translucent blue material that weighed ten times as much as her leg normally did, and added just as much force to her attack.

Her opponent simply watched the leg approach without flinching. When the leg-turned-battering-ram arrived in front of the man, he was suddenly standing inches to the right of his previous position. He observed the leg passing by his left ear and then snatched it out of the air with his left hand, pulled down harshly and unleashed a devastating right hook to Mavis' gut.

As soon as her opponent had grabbed her leg, she released the technique being used to modify it in preparation for the counterattack she knew was coming. Seeing the fist headed for her stomach, she quickly used her Crystallization Magic to transform the flesh of her abdomen into a diamond hard substance that took the punch without issue. However, she was still sent rocketing back from the force of the blow, and had to perform a deft feat of acrobatics to land on her feet.

Straightening up and cancelling her technique, Mavis sent a glare toward her opponent, who smiled in return. "That was good," he said. "The switch between offence and defence was much smoother this time. And I'm pretty sure I broke a knuckle or two with that punch." He chuckled and shook out his hand which was already healing. "C'mon, let's grab some lunch." With that, Mavis followed Naruto out of the clearing and back toward the house to fill their empty stomachs.

"I want to test something later today." Naruto told Mavis as he set two bowls of stew on the table. "It's going to be the ultimate test of either your Crystallization Magic, your immortality, or both." he said with a congenial smile.

The smile did little to set Mavis at ease though. An 'ultimate test' of anything sounded extremely dangerous to the younger blonde, but something powerful enough to possibly destroy her body, even with the added boost of her Crystallization Magic, was something to be feared. Whatever part of her body she chose to crystallize with her magic literally became tougher than diamonds. There were few things that even Naruto had tried that had been able to even crack her defense so far, and even he admitted that the techniques he used against her in those cases were only used if he was actively trying to kill someone.

"What exactly do you mean by 'ultimate test'?" she asked, managing to keep the tremor out of her voice. Immortal or not, pain was pain, and she was far from the most pain-tolerant person on the planet.

"Well," Naruto said, "I'm going to use one of the techniques that created the most famous 'natural' landmarks in my old country. It's essentially designed to be an army-killer, but were gonna be using it just on you. If your armor can't hold up, you'll be turned to mush, but if it does hold up, then I sincerely doubt that there would be a single person on the face of the planet, myself included, who could hurt you if you chose to crystallize your entire body."

The idea of ascertaining how resilient her armor was appealed to the young woman, but she was still stuck on one part of his speech. "_Mush_?" she asked incredulously. "You're going to turn me into a fine pulp if this doesn't work?"

Naruto lifted his hands in a 'what-can-you-do' manner. "Pretty much, yeah. It's not like you'll have anything to worry about." he gestured toward her right arm. "That arm you're using got cut off not two weeks ago. If you can regrow an arm in under an hour, your body will be able to piece itself back together from pudding. Trust me, I once saw Zeref get trampled by one of his own demons. He looked like he belonged in a Jackson Pollock exhibit, but he's still an ever-present thorn in my side, isn't he?"

Mavis had to admit, he had a point. It really wasn't like she would just keel over and not get back up from a measly flesh wound, no matter how severe. But still, that part of her brain that continued to act in self-preservation was screaming mercilessly at her to not go through with this. Naruto had told her that that part of her brain would die out after the first hundred years or so. Glancing at the man, she idly wondered if that part also dealt with shame and rationality. If so, it would explain so much.

"Somedays, I really have to ask myself how it is that I can love you so much." Mavis admitted.

Naruto tossed her a wink from across the table. "It's because I'm so awesome. I'm like a planet of awesome whose gravitational field is constantly pulling you towards me." Mavis only sighed. He was just proving her point

On the romantic front, Mavis acknowledged that things were going very well. Naruto had yet to tell her that he loved her '_like that_', but he was becoming more and more comfortable flirting with her - even if it was in his own unique way - and he had even kissed her once or twice, though she half-suspected those were out of pity as they had only happened after days that he had been ruthless in training. But she would take what she could get, and at the rate things were moving, she would have him wrapped around her little finger by the time their year on the island was up.

Gobbling down the rest of her stew, she stood up and placed her bowl in the sink. Turning to Naruto who was still leisurely enjoying his own meal, she said, "Let's go. If we don't do this now, I'll lose my nerve." When Naruto gave her a pathetic pout, she put her hands on her hips and frowned. "If you hadn't done such a terrible job of selling this 'ultimate test' to me, I wouldn't be like this. Now come on," she gestured with her hands as she headed to the door. "Let's go smush me to paste." She let out a slightly hysterical giggle as she made her way outside. Naruto followed her, resigning himself to an afternoon without food in his stomach.

When the two of them reached the beach on the far side of the island from their home, Mavis turned and gave her best impression of a cocky smirk. "Let's do this. I'm ready."

Naruto looked at her, fighting back a laugh. "If you insist." Focusing for a few seconds, his iris' became gold and his pupils morphed into thick horizontal bars. Once he had entered Sage Mode, he placed his hands into the snake seal.

"_Senpō Mokuton: Shin Sūsenju."_ he intoned.

The ground began to shake, and trees began to topple over. The earth shattered and sand parted as a wooden _something_ started to emerge. Hands were the first distinguishable feature to emerge, followed by long curved arms and a massive head resembling a laughing Buddha. The effigy continued to grow at a frantic pace, revealing even _more_ hands, a torso, and finally, thick wooden legs sitting cross legged on the crumbling earth beneath it. When it had finished, the enormous structure towered far above most of the treetops, it's height only eclipsed by the massive tree in the center of the island, though not by much.

Mavis gaped dumbly at the technique in front of her. It was _huge_! And the hands! There had to be thousands of them; and if the name was indication, there probably were. _True Several Thousand Hands_ indeed!

"Naruto!" she yelled up to the man perched atop the statue. "I take it back! I don't think I want to do this anymore!" Her eyes were wide with terror and her body was trembling.

"What?" he hollered down to her, sticking a finger in his ear and wiggling it around. "I can't hear you! Did you say 'I can't wait anymore'?"

He was _not_ doing this, Mavis thought. She _knew_ he could hear her, he was just being an ass. So help her, if he didn't stop that right this second and come down from there, there would be hell to pay. Her internal rant was cut off when Naruto spoke up again.

"Hey Mavis!" She looked up. "High five!"

Fuck.

This was going to hurt.

She crossed her arms in front of her and managed to completely crystallize her body just as the first hands hit. The first hit knocked her on her back and forced her down into the sand. Then the next came and forced her further down into the yielding sand. And then it all seemed to blur together. Her entire existence was boiled down to being pummelled by a fat, wooden, abomination of a religious icon. On and on it went as the hands continued their assault.

While she didn't quite feel pain in the parts of her body that were crystallized, she did have some awareness of what was happening in those areas. And now, she could feel her left arm beginning to weaken and crack. Her entire forearm must have looked like a broken mirror as the hairline cracks continued to spread. Suddenly, the arm gave, but not in the way she expected. The arm snapped away at the elbow while still remaining intact, and was then forced into her crystallized face by one of the buddha's many hands. Now, not only was she being harassed by this massive statue, she was also, in essence, hitting herself. Naruto would have a field day with that if he found out.

Next, she felt her left leg snap off at the knee, with the foot being crushed into a fine powder. Her right leg was headed for the same fate, when everything suddenly stopped. She waited for another 15 seconds before carefully de-crystallizing her head and opening her eyes. The assault had ended and she found herself laying in a crater that must have been nearly 100 meters deep and impossibly wide. The seawater that had been blasted away by the concussive force of the impacting hands was beginning to return and she could feel it start to soak into her hair.

Keeping what remained of her arm and leg crystallized, Mavis gradually reverted her flesh back to normal. She wasn't afraid of bleeding out, but she didn't want to stain one of her favorite dresses with so much arterial blood. It really was a pain to get out.

As she was finishing this process, Naruto appeared in the crater and scrutinized his handiwork. He let out a low whistle when he saw Mavis. "That's pretty impressive. One arm and one leg separated but still mostly intact. And both were at joints where the crystal is more fragile. The only thing completely destroyed looks to be your left foot, but we can chalk that up to a lucky shot." He gave a wide smile at the girl beneath him, but she just glared back.

When she realized her glare was having no effect, she sighed and grabbed her severed arm. "Just pick me up so we can go home." Naruto saluted smartly and obliged. "And don't forget my leg. It's much easier to reattach limbs than regrow them."

"Do you mind if we walk back home? There's something I want to talk to you about." Naruto said. When he got a nod in answer, he began walking, and elaborated. "I've been thinking-"

"That's new." Mavis shot out with a smirk.

"Oi!" Naruto yelped. "Uncalled for." Mavis only shrugged in response. "Anyway, like I was saying; I've been thinking. If we're going to start a more...um...physical relationship," Mavis looked very interested now, "I think we should work on a way to make you a bit older, at least in appearance." Naruto looked down at the girl, hoping he hadn't offended her in some way.

Mavis seemed to be mulling it over in her head as she scrunched her eyebrows in thought. Then her face shifted suddenly to one of recognition. "Hinata had big breasts. You like big-breasted women. You want me to look older so that you can play with my breasts!"

Naruto blanched and spluttered at her blunt and half-correct statement. "That's not what I meant!" he shouted. Mavis looked disbelieving, so he explained. "Well, yeah, Hinata had big boobs, and that was awesome, but that's not why I want to make you look older. It's just that no matter how I try to justify it in my mind, the fact is that no matter how old you may be in reality, you're still inhabiting a 13 year old's body. At any other time, that'd be fine. When we're talking or fighting or just lounging around, I'm doing those things with an adult. Your personality is the most dominant part of you at those times. But when we decide to...er…" He paused at a loss for words.

"Make love." Mavis supplied.

"Yeah. When we decide to make love, your physical appearance is just as important as your personality, and I'm not sure I can be comfortable if I were to open my eyes and realize I'm technically doing those things with a preteen."

Here, Naruto stopped and prayed he hadn't offended her. Mavis' body was always a sore topic for her and so they tended to avoid talking about it, but this had to be addressed if she wanted them to have any sort of romantic future together. He looked down at the still-dismembered girl in his arms. There was a reason that he had waited until now to broach the subject with her. Now, if she got mad or scared, she couldn't chase him or run off, respectively.

After nearly three minutes of careful deliberation, Mavis spoke up. "You're doing this all backwards, you know." Naruto looked at her in confusion. "Usually the man expresses his love for a girl before he declares his intention to sleep with her. It's only proper." Naruto spluttered, looking for a response, but was cut off by Mavis' explanation. "During your speech, you said 'when' we sleep together, not 'if'." Naruto moved to retort, but was once again stopped. "You did it multiple times, so don't try to call it a slip of the tongue." She said with a mischievous smirk adorning her face.

Naruto looked a bit mortified at being called out so blatantly. And here, he was trying not to rush into things with Mavis. Six months may seem like a long time to some people, but to an immortal, it was like the passing of a few hours. Mavis would learn that with time. So yes, he was attracted to her. Yes, he wanted to kiss her and hold her and just be with her all of the time, but good things come to those who wait. His marriage to Hinata was proof of that. That was a relationship more than a decade in the making. He wanted to be able to commit himself 100%, and he couldn't do that until he took care of the lingering doubt in the back of his mind that she was still a child. What better way to fix that than to give her the chance to 'grow up' so to speak?

Sighing, Naruto stopped walking and looked Mavis in the eye. "You're right. I am doing this all wrong, aren't I? So let's start this over." He paused to take a deep breath. "I love you, Mavis Vermilion."

Mavis, for her part, was a bit dumbstruck. She didn't think that he'd actually come out and say it like that. Sure, she'd been hoping for it, but it was somewhere far off in the back of her mind that she save for fantasies. She couldn't believe it. It was unreal. It had to be a dream.

She smacked him.

"What the hell, Mavis!"

Well, that certainly _felt_ real enough. And his reaction was in character for him. Maybe this really wasn't a dream. Suddenly, the arms supporting her vanished and she fell to the ground with a thump.

"Ow! Dammit Naruto! Why'd you go and do that? Now my ass is going to bruise!"

"You smacked me after I told you I loved you! Why'd _you_ go and do _that_!"

"Well I thought that I might have been dreaming, so I needed to make sure that I wasn't." she reasoned.

"And you couldn't have pinched yourself?"

"If I pinched myself, my brain could have just told my dream-body that it hurt, but if I hurt you, my brain wouldn't know what to think...I think."

Naruto palmed his face. "That seriously made no sense whatsoever." He shook his head, dismissing the argument. "You're not dreaming. I really do love you." He waited for her to say something. Anything. "Well? Don't you have something you want to tell me?"

Mavis held her chin in thought for a moment. "You're not just saying this to get in my pants, are you?"

"Why the hell would you think that!?"

"I told you that you were doing things backwards by saying you wanted to have sex with me before you told me you loved me, and then right after that, you go and tell me that you love me. What's a girl supposed to think?"

Oh. That...actually made some sense. "No! That's not- I don't- Well, I mean I do- But, I really- Ugh!" He took a moment to collect himself. "Mavis, I'm not saying that I don't want to have sex with you, because I do...eventually. What I _am_ saying is that I love you and that I want to be in a relationship with you. If that relationship eventually progresses to the point that we have sex, then that's great; awesome, really. If not, then that's fine too. I've been celibate for nearly eight centuries; a few more won't kill me."

Mavis took all of this in with a straight face. She sat in silence for a moment, and then spoke quietly. "You mean it? You really love me? Like, romantically, the way I love you?"

Naruto nodded and smiled softly. "I do." He knelt down and gathered her back into his arms before standing back up. She was still staring at him with awestruck, almost reverent eyes. Tentatively, she reached her hand up to cup his cheek. When he didn't resist, she stretched herself up until her lips met his.

Naruto was pleasantly surprised. He had expected that kissing Mavis would be like kissing Hinata. He loved both of them, and they were sharing lovers kisses. What he found instead was that they were completely different. Mavis' smaller, thinner lips moved and responded differently than Hinata's fuller ones had. Not only that, but the feelings this kiss evoked were both similar and different.

Kissing Hinata had brought forth a burning desire, but also an almost childlike shyness. The fluttering stomach and rapidly beating heart that were present in their first kiss seemed to follow them. But each kiss also brought forth new and changing feelings throughout the course of their marriage. It was familiar and comforting, and fresh and new all at the same time.

Kissing Mavis though, evoked a fierce protectiveness - ironic, given her current state - and unfathomable gratitude for the woman who had saved him from an eternity of loneliness. There was eagerness in finally being able to do what both had thought about for quite some time.

There was none of the shyness from earlier present in Mavis' kiss. As soon as her lips touched his, she seemed to change. She became confident and sure in her movements. Naruto was almost entirely sure she had never kissed anyone else before him, but she seemed to know exactly what she wanted and exactly how to get it. Her lips moved fluidly against his own in a languid dance.

After what felt like hours, but was only ten or fifteen seconds, they broke their kiss; but not before Mavis managed to sneak her tongue into Naruto's mouth to give his own tongue a teasing lick retreating.

Parting, they looked at each other's slightly flushed faces, relishing the contentment brought about by their kiss. Mavis leaned in and gave him one more quick peck, then sunk down into his chest with a look of utmost contentment on her face..

"Let's go home. On the way, tell me more about your idea to make me look older."

Path set, Naruto began their journey once more. "First, I think we should work on teaching you Transformation magic."

Mavis jerked in his arms. "You mean I could've just been transforming myself this entire time?"

Naruto shook his head. "Yes and no. You could have transformed yourself, but transformations alone are pretty fragile and require a good bit of concentration. As soon as someone hit you with any real force, or if you forgot to actively hold the transformation, it would dispel."

"Then how is learning Transformation magic going to help me?" Mavis asked curiously.

"The transformation is just the first step. Once you can transform, I can work on making it much more practical. I think with the right seals, I can make it near impossible to break the transformation through force, and make it relatively self-sustaining. It'll drain a fair bit of magic, but you wouldn't have to be conscious of the transformation to keep it intact. We'll have to test it out a few times, but I think you should be able to hold the transformation for a good few hours and still be in fighting shape."

By this point, the look in Mavis' eyes was definitely reverential. "You really think this will work? I'll be able to look the way I'm supposed to, and be taken seriously as a guild master, and go out in public with you without getting weird looks?" She was on the verge of tears at this point. What Naruto was proposing was like a miracle. Next to being together with Naruto, it was what she wanted most in the world: to be able to look how she felt, to look like an adult, to _be_ an adult in the eyes of those around her. Naruto truly was the greatest thing to appear in her life. Without him, who knew where she would be?

"You'll be able to look however you want; older or younger, taller or shorter, it's up to you. You don't need to look older to be taken seriously, as a guild master or as a person. Everyone who knows you knows what you're capable of, and those who don't will learn the hard way. I don't know about not getting weird looks in public, but if we do get them, it won't be for how you look."

He smiled down at her as he finished his speech and exited the forest into the clearing surrounding their house. "Alight," he said, "let's get you inside to fix up your limbs, and then, after dinner, we can start on teaching you Transformation magic. Sound like a plan?"

"Let's start on Transformation magic now, eat dinner, and then work on it some more after that." Mavis argued.

"I think it might be best if you had all of your limbs before we start practicing."

"What? You mean these?" With that, she cuffed both of his ears, and then backflipped out of his arms to land on two feet.

Naruto rubbed at his head as he turned to look at her. "When did you manage all that? And with no blood."

"I started after you picked me up the second time and just finished a few minutes ago. As for the blood, I stuck the ends together, connected the two crystals, and then dissolved the parts holding back the blood. That left an airtight space for my knee and elbow to grow back. For my foot, I just de-crystallized small bits of flesh at a time. There was some blood, but I kept it off the both of us. My foots the only reason it took this long to finish. I'm actually still missing a couple toes." Indeed, her left foot only had her big toe and pinky toe to balance her out, while a small strip of blue crystal adorned the space between them.

"As impressive as that is, we should still wait for everything to set itself straight before we try any transformations." Naruto insisted. Mavis reluctantly agreed and they made their way inside.

Dinner was slightly rushed on Mavis' part as she anxiously awaited learning this new magic. When they'd finished and placed the dishes in the sink for later, they retired to the library to begin.

Four hours later, and Mavis was becoming frustrated. She'd reached the intermediate level relatively quickly and could change her face and clothes in whatever way she wished, but she was still stuck at her towering height of 4'8". Reaching the advanced level and being able to change her height and body shape were what she needed to do for any of this to matter. If she couldn't do that, then no matter how old she made her face look, at the end of the day she'd still be short and flat.

Naruto was hardly any help. Around two hours ago, he'd gotten the idea that she needed to "See how it's done," and had been parading around under the guise of several different busty beauties ever since. Talk about rubbing salt in her wounds.

Deciding to give it one last shot before calling it a day, she called upon her magic and transformed.

When the smoke cleared from her vision, she sighed. She was staring at the exact same point on the wall from the exact same height as all of her other attempts. Pouting, she crossed her arms over her chest and froze. Something felt different. Her chest was...softer somehow.

Suddenly, ignoring the fact that Naruto - currently cast as Lusty Lady #7 - was still in the room, she threw her dress over her head and looked down. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head and her mouth dropped open.

Her breasts, which only seconds before had been mere mosquito bites, had suddenly grown to the size of small oranges. It was a far-cry from the size she was aiming for, but it proved that she could do it.

Turning to the red-headed beauty in the deep blue ballgown, she thrust her chest forward proudly while proclaiming, "I did it! Look Naruto! I have boobs!"

Naruto choked on the water he'd been sipping and hurriedly looked away, unconsciously releasing his transformation in the process. "That's...uh...That's great Mavis. They...um...look nice?" It came out more as a question, but he was entirely unsure how to respond to this situation. Luckily, Mavis knew exactly what she was doing.

"Mou…" she pouted. "You're not even looking. This is for you just as much as it is for me, you know. How am I supposed to know what kind of boobs you like if you don't tell me?"

"I'm a guy," Naruto said, still not turning around, "I like all boobs, big and small. It's just the way we're made." He cleared his throat. "Those are...very nice. They...suit you." Naruto's face was bright red by the time he finished.

Unknown the the shinobi, Mavis wore a devious smirk as she stalked up behind him where he sat backwards on the couch. Throwing her arms around his neck, she pressed herself against his back and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Just you wait. They'll be even nicer by the time I'm done. And then they're all yours to do with as you please." She let out a seductive purr at the end, and that was all it took. Naruto was off the couch and on his way out of the room without a backwards glance. Before he left, he called out to Mavis.

"I'm just gonna go work on that seal now. You have fun, uh...practicing. I'll be in my room if you want me...er, want to talk to me, that is." With that, he was gone.

Once Mavis heard the sound of Naruto's door shutting, she fell to the floor and began laughing hysterically. Honestly; if she could do that to him with just a slight change in the size of her chest, she couldn't wait to see what he'd do when she could complete the whole transformation. Drying her mirthful tears, she stood up and got back to work.

Naruto was having quite an interesting dream. He was once again relaxing on the shores of the Ramen Sea and being spoonfed by the local Ramenites, but this time, instead of the usual assortment, all of these women seemed to be tall, slender, and big-breasted, with deep green eyes. They were spaced evenly around him, but one in particular was being oftly friendly with him. This one was curled up along his right side, gently stroking his chest with one hand while the other ran through his hair. Suddenly, the friendly one smirked cruelly, and with the hand stroking his chest, tweaked his nipple harshly.

He jerked in surprise and a small bit of pain, and sat up sharply, ready to admonish her. To his disappointment, he found he was not in fact in the wonderful Land of Ramen, but actually in his bed on Tenroujima. His disappointment was short-lived however, when he looked down to find a scantily clad buxom blonde draped suggestively across his chest. Her hand, he noticed, was poised over his right nipple, seemingly prepared to repeat her earlier assault.

He was torn between staring hungrily at the sight that so closely matched his dream, and protecting his sensitive chest from the woman's deft hands. In the end, he chose gaping. And who could blame him? The woman was perfectly proportioned: large - but not too large - breasts, a toned and slender waist that flared out into sensuous hips, and long, long, lean legs that tapered off into dainty little feet. She was perfection wrapped in a single human body. She couldn't be real. And that's when it hit him.

"Mavis?" he asked, half in curiosity, half in wonder.

The woman next to him donned a victorious smirk. "Surprised?" Her voice was different than he was accustomed to; deeper and more melodious, but it was still undeniably Mavis' voice. "I was up all night practicing. I thought I'd surprise you with the results." She gave him a flirtatious wink. "Do you like it?"

Like it? He loved it! She was gorgeous! Her beauty was ethereal, but still completely Mavis. All of her features were there, just aged to perfection, like a fine wine. Her eyes, nose, and mouth retained their shape, but they were more defined, more womanly. Her jawline had sharpened, and drew a natural line down to her impressive chest. The largest change by far though, was in the way she held herself. Even laying down in naught but some flimsy negligee, she seemed like the most confident woman Naruto had ever laid eyes upon. All in all, she was easily the most beautiful woman he had seen in hundreds of years, if not his entire life.

"I-You-It's-" He stuttered. Words were failing him, so he relied on action to convey his feelings on the subject. He leaned down and quickly captured her in a passionate kiss, lips mashing against one another in desperate hunger.

After nearly a minute, Mavis pulled back with a gasp. Her control over the transformation wavered, but she managed to keep it in check as she gathered her bearings.

"I'll take that as a yes then." She giggled distractedly as she brought a hand to her lips.

"I...You can't go walking around like that all the time." Naruto told her. When she shot him a questioning glance, he elaborated. "We'll never get anything done if I have to watch you doing every little thing looking like that." The words were rather ambiguous, but the look on his face was anything but. Mavis blushed deeply at the lustful look he shot her, and then rolled away from him and stood up from the bed.

"Then come enjoy the view while I make breakfast, because you won't get to see it again until you finish your seal." She ran a hand through her silky hair with a dejected look on her face. "It's hard enough keeping this transformation while walking around, let alone while doing anything fun."

Naruto had a victorious look on his face as he responded. "Then I guess it's a good thing I finished the design last night." Mavis' eyes widened and she hopped up and down gleefully. Naruto lost his train of thought as he admired the healthy bounce of her bountiful chest. Shaking his head, he finished his thought. "After breakfast, we can sit you down and get it drawn on. Then, we can spend the rest of the day getting you used to moving in that form."

Mavis squealed excitedly, giving him a quick peck on the lips before scurrying off to make their breakfast. Halfway down the hall, she tripped over her own feet and stumbled into the wall. Shrugging it off, she made her way at a slower pace to the kitchen.

When she had gone, Naruto let out a small chuckle and began preparing for the day. Tossing a glance out into the deserted hallway, he grimaced. Today would be the ultimate test of his self control.

900 years of celibacy was catching up fast.

**A/N**: Here's Chapter 7. Late, I know, but like I said in the last update, school's been a bitch. Luckily, I'm pretty much done with any pressing matters until the end of the month when exams start. Awesome news! I got accepted to study abroad in Japan next semester, so that'll be fun. More awesome news! This is the last chapter on Tenrou. There might be a bit of stuff in the beginning of next chapter, but the majority of it will take place off the island. In it, we'll discover the person behind Zeira's death. Y'all thought I forgot about that didn't you? Well I did, until like two days ago, but whatever.

Thanks to the reviewers who gave ideas about Transformation magic as the solution Mavis' age problem, and for pointing out some errors in earlier chapters. If you're interested, I fixed a continuity error in chapter five and a glaring math error in chapter six.

I decided to give Mavis some magic other than Transformation and Fairy Magics because having a tiny little thing be able to beat the shit out of grown men makes me chuckle, and it provides interesting ways to script fights in the future. I don't know if it's original; if it's not, then credit goes to whoever came up with it before me. You'll also notice that Naruto is a bit more cavalier when it comes to Mavis' safety. Such is life when you literally can't die. I'll try to get chapter eight out next week, but considering I haven't even started writing it, I'm not making any promises.

That's all from me. Sorry about the length of this AN. See y'all next time!


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